Raiders fans received good news shortly after their team's 23-16 loss to the Giants. Three time Pro Bowl receiver DeSean Jackson told CBS Sports NFL insider Josina Anderson that he plans to sign with the silver and black. Jackson recently cleared waivers after he was released by the Rams after the trade deadline.
Jackson will join a Raiders team that despite Sunday's loss is off to a solid start to the 2021 season. The Raiders are 5-3 atop the AFC West division. But as Sunday's loss showed, the Raiders are in need of reinforcements at receiver. Quarterback Derek Carr's two favorite targets on Sunday were tight end Darren Waller and running back Kenyan Drake. Carr's top receiver was Hunter Renfrow, who finished the game with seven catches for 49 yards and a touchdown. Zay Jones, who caught just one pass for 20 yards, was the only other Raiders receiver to catch a pass during Sunday's loss.
The 34-year-old Jackson signed a one-year, $4.5 million contract with the Rams this past offseason. But the two sides mutual agreed to part ways after Jackson was scarcely used during the season's first seven games. Jackson caught eight passes on 15 targets for 221 yards and one touchdown during his brief time in Los Angeles. He was released after the Rams were unable to find a trade partner.
Jackson's last significant season was in 2018, when he caught 41 passes for 774 yards and four touchdowns as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Injuries limited Jackson to just eight games during the 2019 and '20 seasons. He spent both of those seasons in Philadelphia, where he was a three-time Pro Bowler from 2008-13.
One of the best deep-threat receivers over the last two decades, Jackson has led the NFL in average yards per catch on four separate occasions. For his career, Jackson has caught 620 passes for 10,877 yards for an average of 17.5 yards per catch.
