On Las Vegas’ depth chart for its first preseason game last week, the Raiders listed Shedrick Jackson as a fourth-team wide receiver. That meant at least nine wide receivers were ahead of him in the pecking order, and NFL teams usually keep six wide receivers on their regular-season active roster.
But the former Hoover High School and Auburn pass-catcher could be moving up after he led Las Vegas with four receptions for 76 yards and one touchdown in a 23-23 tie with the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night.
Jackson termed it “very important” to make a statement.
“It is a lot of talent,” Jackson said of the Raiders’ wide-receivers room. “We got a lot of guys -- guys with experience, younger guys, too, that can do a lot of things.”
Jackson had all his receptions in the fourth quarter after he lost a 16-yard reception to an offensive pass interference penalty on the final play of the third quarter.
With 7:27 to play, Jackson got loose for a 41-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Cam Miller, a sixth-round rookie from North Dakota State playing his first pro game.
Las Vegas coach Pete Carroll called the touchdown “just a gorgeous play.”
“It was great to run that route,” Jackson said. “Of course, that’s something you practice all the time. Once I got my one-two at the top, moving forward, you know, I knew that Cam was going to give me a chance. All I had to do was beat him deep after that, go get the ball. …
“Man, I knew I was wide open, so I know the ball, sometimes it’s the hardest one to catch when you’re wide open. But, you know, credit to Cam. He gave me a chance, and I got it and took advantage of it.”
Jackson also scored a preseason touchdown on Aug. 26, 2023, when he had a 34-yard reception for the Cincinnati Bengals against the Washington Commanders.
That didn’t keep the Bengals from waiving Jackson at the end of the preseason as an undrafted rookie. But Cincinnati brought him right back for its practice squad, and he played in five games in 2023, getting on the field for five offensive snaps and 38 special-team plays.
The same thing happened in 2024, but this time, the Bengals cut Jackson from the practice squad two weeks into the season. Jackson didn’t return to the NFL until Dec. 4, when he joined the Raiders’ practice squad for the final five weeks of the season.
Rookie tight end Brock Bowers led Las Vegas with 112 receptions for 1,194 yards and five touchdowns last season. The Raiders’ top wide receiver, Jakobi Meyers, had 87 receptions for 1,027 yards and four touchdowns.
Bowers and Meyers return for 2025, along with wide receiver Tre Tucker, who had 47 receptions for 539 yards and three touchdowns in 2024.
Las Vegas invested a second-round draft pick in TCU wide receiver Jack Bech on April 25 and a fourth-round pick in Tennessee wide receiver Dont’e Thornton Jr. on April 26.
Jackson is among the seven other wide receivers seeking to make the regular-season roster, including Seth Williams, Jackson’s teammate at Auburn from 2018 through 2020. While Jackson had 10 receptions for 130 yards in those seasons, Williams had 132 receptions for 2,124 yards and 17 touchdowns.
In 2021, with Williams on the Denver Broncos as a seventh-round draft pick, Jackson had 40 receptions for 527 yards and one touchdown – his only one at Auburn on a 10-yard pass from TJ Finley with 45 seconds remaining in a 34-24 victory over Georgia State on Sept. 25, 2021.
In his senior season, Jackson’s production for the Tigers slipped to 16 receptions for 217 yards, leaving him to enter the NFL undrafted.
At Hoover, Jackson had been a second-team All-State selection in 2017, when the Buccaneers won the AHSAA Class 7A championship for the second straight season.
The Raiders return to the field for the second of their three preseason games at 3 p.m. CDT Saturday, when they face the San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Field in Las Vegas.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.
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