The Seattle Seahawks released veteran right guard Gabe Jackson on Thursday, according to the league's official transactions wire.
The move was long considered likely given the combination of Jackson's age, knee troubles and his high salary cap number for 2023. Jackson, who turns 32 in July, was entering the final year of his contract with a scheduled cap charge of nearly $11.3 million.
By releasing him, Seattle saves $6.5 million in cash and cap space -- the amount Jackson was set to earn in 2023 base salary -- while taking on nearly $4.8 million in dead money.
Jackson spent his first seven seasons with the Raiders, who drafted him in the third round out of Mississippi State in 2014. The Seahawks acquired him in a March 2021 trade for a fifth-round pick in that year's draft. That move came after quarterback Russell Wilson publicly vented about the number of times he'd been sacked over his career and lobbied for the Seahawks to improve his pass protection.
Jackson started 31 of a possible 34 regular-season games over two seasons with Seattle, missing three with knee injuries. He shared time at right guard in 2022 as part of a planned rotation with Phil Haynes. The Seahawks viewed it as a way to get Haynes playing time while also easing the burden on Jackson, whose knee issues caused him to regularly miss practice.
The Seahawks gave Haynes a one-year deal on Feb. 21 to keep him from hitting free agency, a move that further portended Jackson's release.
Jackson ranked 20th among qualifying guards (left or right) in ESPN's pass block win rate in 2021 and was 44th in 2022. He made roughly $16 million from the three-year, $22.575 million deal that he signed with Seattle after his trade from the Raiders.
The Seahawks also released linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven, who hasn't played since suffering a torn ACL in the 2021 preseason.