Gutierrez: Shedrick Jackson turned persistence into payoff with first‑career TD

Dec 12, 2025 at 09:30 AM

Paul Gutierrez

Raiders Columnist

It's not every day a player's first career NFL catch doubles as his first career NFL touchdown.

So no wonder Pete Carroll called Kenny Pickett's throw "exquisite," and Shedrick Jackson's catch "perfect" on the throw and catch in question. And if you had them teaming up for a December TD on your Silver and Black Bingo card, well…

"The ball was ripped, split the safety, and the ball was right on the money," the Raiders coach said with a twinkle in his eye. "And Shedrick looked like he'd been there his whole life."

In a way, he has. At least, when you factor in his last name and his familial connection to the Raiders.

As noted in this space back in training camp, Jackson's great uncle - his paternal grandfather's brother - is Bo Jackson. Yes, that Bo Jackson. And while Shedrick grew up hearing the lore of Bo Knows and watching the YouTube highlights of Grunkle Bo plowing over hapless defenders when he wasn't sprinting by them, he has always tried to make a name for himself.

Scratch that - needed to make a name for himself. But with all due respect, especially when it comes to family.

That's why Jackson's textbook score Sunday against the Broncos - he lined up wide right before veering toward the post for a pretty 25-yard grab in stride, his first regular-season TD since Sept. 25, 2021, for Auburn against Georgia State – means so much to him.

Jackson, an undrafted rookie who entered the league in 2023 with the Bengals before coming to Las Vegas late last season, is a profile in perseverance.

"You never know," he told me on the most recent episode of Upon Further Review. "You just take it one day at a time and put the work in that's necessary … to get better. Or stay consistent and just stand in the mindset of what's going to happen [is going to happen]. And whenever your number gets called, you've just got to stay ready so you ain't got to get ready.

"That's all there is to it."

Sounds simple, right?

Well, it kind of is for Jackson, whose previous NFL experience was limited to five games with the Bengals in 2023 with one target sans a catch, before playing three offensive snaps without a target in the Raiders' Week 7 loss at Kansas City.

And that was it.

Which begs the question: with such limited burn, how does one stay ready so one doesn't have to get ready?

"Staying in the playbook," Jackson said. "Make sure I'm on top of my fundamentals, my technique, just trusting that at the end of the day, and knowing that when I get on the field and it's time to do what I do, then I'm going to be able to execute."

Another ironic key, then? Pickett's familiarity with Jackson and Jackson's with Pickett, what with the two working with each other extensively on backup duty throughout the season.

Before Sunday.

Pickett, remember, entered the game and played the entirety of the fourth quarter after starting quarterback Geno Smith got banged up with right hand and shoulder injuries, and Jackson had been elevated from the practice squad, in part, because of rookie wideout Dont'e Thornton's concussion.

"I've been working with Shed' a lot more than the starters," Pickett said. "So when I had him in there, I felt really confident that he was going to run the right route, be in the right spot. Timing was perfect. We had the right coverage, so it was just really good execution."

Hence the connection, literal and figurative.

"It goes a long way, you know, it definitely goes a long way when you have a lot of reps together," Pickett said. "I just know where he's going to be, he knows what I'm looking for, so we have good communication together."

Did we already mention how pretty the catch was? It deserves another mention, then, for its simplicity was mesmerizing.

Jackson caught the ball with his hands, not his chest, in stride while splitting the defenders in the end zone.

"I mean, you see the ball, you just react to it," Jackson said. "So, you know, I trust my hands, put them out there, I made the catch."

Again, his first regular season NFL catch. His first catch since the preseason, when he led the Raiders with eight receptions for 133 yards and a TD.

"That's a part of what I was saying - just staying ready," Jackson said. "Just trusting your technique. Knowing your fundamentals and knowing that they're solid to be able to make plays like that. It's the league. So when you get out there, you've got to make that play."

Besides, Jackson had an inkling something was in the works.

He knew he would be up from the practice squad to face the Broncos so he put in a call to great-uncle Bo.

"Watch the game," the younger Jackson advised. "I'm gonna to get in there a little bit. Do my thing."

Prescient much?

Shedrick not only got a game ball from Carroll for his efforts, but a congratulatory text from Grunkle Bo.

"It's always good to have that back and forth," Shedrick said, "and just have fun with it.

"If I need help, I can call him, ask him questions, pick his brain a little bit. And that's great to have somebody that played the sport, and has done it in so many levels, in so many ways. So I think that's just a big help for me."

You could even call it exquisitely perfect.

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Raiderettes Ali and Annalise welcome students to a Raiders Youth Holiday Party at Intermountain Health Performance Center.