Kareem Jackson has ‘old Chevy running’ for 14th season

How long has Kareem Jackson been playing in the NFL?

“I played with DeMeco Ryans for two years,” Jackson said to illustrate his longevity.

Ryans is preparing for his first season as the head coach of the Houston Texans.

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“A lot of the guys that are becoming head coaches and coaches now, I played with them,” Jackson said. “There’s quite a few guys on different staffs around the league that I played with, and DeMeco was one of them.”

Like Ryans, Jackson played his college football at Alabama, and he entered the NFL as the 20th player picked in the 2010 draft. Thirteen seasons later, he’s waiting to see where he’ll play his 14th.

Jackson is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at 3 p.m. CDT Wednesday when his contract with the Denver Broncos expires.

“Always excited about free agency,” Jackson said during an appearance on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” on Friday. “A new opportunity. Just need one opportunity, and I feel like any time you go out and you put your body of work out there, just let things happen from there. For me, I feel like I had a good year last year. Still playing at a high level with it being Year 14. Just excited. An exciting time right now.”

In his fourth season with the Broncos, Jackson started every game at strong safety and registered a career-high 94 tackles in 2022.

“I still feel like I’m playing at a high level,” Jackson said about looking forward to a 14th NFL season. “The window of opportunity as far as playing this game, it’s not big, so I’ve always said as long as I can run out there and run around and play at a high level, I’ll play. Going into Year 14, I set a goal for myself to play 15, and I’ve been sticking to that.”

In his first nine NFL seasons with the Texans, Jackson played in eight postseason games. But he hasn’t participated in the playoffs since 2018.

“Obviously, I would love for the payday to be right,” Jackson said about free agency. “I understand age and all that stuff, which is, to me, crazy when it comes to that. I mean, if you’re playing at a high level, you’re playing at a high level regardless of your age.

“I’d definitely love a chance to win a ring. Fourteen years, I played in the playoffs a couple of times. But to not have been in the playoffs the last four years, I would definitely love to be on a team that’s a contender.”

During the 2022 season, Jackson passed Deshea Townsend for the most NFL games played by a defensive back from Alabama. With 193 NFL regular-season games, Jackson ranks sixth on the Crimson Tide’s all-time list behind punter Chris Mohr (239 games), tight end Howard Cross (207), linebacker Cornelius Bennett (206), tight end Ozzie Newsome (198) and quarterback Bart Starr (196).

Only two Alabama alumni have made more NFL starts than Jackson’s 185 – Bennett with 204 and Newsome with 191.

Jackson is 15 starts away from becoming the 19th NFL defensive back with at least 200.

“I feel great,” Jackson said. “Body’s feeling good. Been at it for a couple of months now. I’m one of those guys that don’t usually take a lot of time off – maybe two or three weeks. I feel like the older you get, the more you kind of got to keep the body going, got to keep that old Chevy running.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.