Another Packer player has joined the Drew Rosenhaus “unhappy with my contract” clan. Nose tackle Grady Jackson has joined Javon Walker and Najeh Davenport on Tuesday with Rosenhaus as their agent.
Rosenhaus stated that Jackson is “very dissatisfied" with his current deal with the Green Bay Packers and is likely to hold out in training camp unless the Packers re-work his deal. He pointed to Jackson hiring him as his new agent as the cause of Jackson’s dissatisfaction because he was not happy with his current situation. Jackson previous agent was James "Bus" Cook who is Brett Favre’s current agent.
Jackson has one year left on his two years 2.31 million dollar contract extension that was signed in 2003. He also re-worked his contract at the end of last year to include some performance related incentives. It is unlikely that the Packers will re-work Jackson’s contract because they have refused his previous agent’s attempts in the past few months. Jackson who has knee surgery at the end of each of last two seasons and a dislocated knee cap last season, is now 32. So, age and health of Jackson appear to be impacting the Packers decision not to re-structure the contract at this time. If a holdout occurs, the Packers will be concerned about his weight and conditioning going into the regular season as they will not be able to monitor it.
I believe that Grady Jackson is one of the keys to a successful defense this year. When he is healthy and clogging up the middle of the line, The Packers are 15-6 including playoff games. He is especially important to keep the offense line off the fast smaller linebackers like Barnett. I hope this gets resolved soon as this becomes more important with the “hopeful” departure of Cletidus Hunt.