Seahawks: Re-working Gabe Jackson should make Russ very happy

The Seahawks re-worked guard Gabe Jackson’s deal Tuesday. This should make the interior of the Seattle offensive line very good for the next three seasons at least. Rookie right guard Damien Lewis was excellent in 2020 and should only get better. Lewis is already a great run blocker. Jackson can both pass and run block extremely well and appears to be re-born after getting traded to Seattle and this will only motivate him more to be very good.

Possibly Ethan Pocic becomes more like early-2020 than late-2020 and finds his home as the Seahawks center. Jackson is signed through 2023 now as is Lewis. That should mean Seattle has very good guard play for three more years and if Pocic can be pretty good at center than Seattle potentially has one of the better interior cores along an offensive line in the NFL for several seasons.

Maybe that’s a big if and then maybe it isn’t. Lewis is good and so is Jackson, this is known. The only question is Pocic and he was good before getting hurt in the early part of last year. Maybe in his second full season as the Seattle center he could be – possibly should be – even better.

Seahawks will be better with Gabe Jackson

Jackson’s re-worked contract will take him through 2023. He will make $10.075 million in 2021 but his cap hit in 2021 is lowered by $5 million. This means Seattle either has $5 million more to spend or take that into account free agents already signed so that Seattle remains in line with the 2021 salary cap.

The point, of course, is whether Jackson makes Seattle a better team moving forward and the answer is an absolute yes. Jackson will probably play left guard next to Duane Brown or maybe he plays right and the Seahawks flip Lewis to left. Either, the line will be very good and Russell Wilson should be very happy with the players in front of him for the next several seasons.