When the Green Bay Packers handed Josh Jacobs a four-year, $48 million contract, it was one of the first big surprises of the offseason. The team already had Aaron Jones and the former Las Vegas Raiders running back was coming off a down season where he missed four games due to injury.
Jones had been a solid player for the Packers and had three seasons of over 1,000 yards. However, he missed six games last season and has never led the NFL in rushing the same way Jacobs did in 2022. Despite that, Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report believes that the Packers will regret replacing Jones with Jacobs.
“Last year, Jacobs averaged just 3.5 yards per carry,” Knox wrote in a May 26 column. “He isn’t a clear upgrade over a healthy Jones, and after being heavily overworked over the past two years (663 touches), there’s no guarantee that Jacobs will regain the Pro Bowl form he showed in 2022.
“If Jacobs stumbles at all this season, Green Bay will regret letting one of its top leaders leave for a division rival.”
Jacobs has played two fewer seasons than Jones but only has 395 fewer career rushing yards. He’s certainly an upgrade for the Packers but $48 million is a high price to pay for a running back with an injury history.
Will Las Vegas Raiders Regret Losing Josh Jacobs?
Either the Raiders or the Packers could end up regretting what happened with Jacobs this offseason. For Las Vegas, they’ve lost a team leader and one of the best first-round picks they’ve made in years.
Jacobs was a very important piece for the team and his impact went beyond what he did with the ball in his hands. However, whether or not the Raiders regret letting him walk in free agency will come down to how Zamir White plays. The former fourth-round pick started four games in relief of Jacobs and rushed for 397 yards.
He showed that he could be a dependable running back but Jacobs is one of the best in the NFL. The Raiders need White to take a leap so they don’t start to miss the former Pro Bowler.
Luke Getsy Talks Las Vegas Raiders RBs
New offensive coordinator Luke Getsy has called plays for a top-two rushing offense in back-to-back seasons with the Chicago Bears. Though he doesn’t have a mobile quarterback in Las Vegas, he’ll have a solid group of running backs to utilize that should include White, Alexander Mattison, Ameer Abdullah and possibly rookie Dylan Laube.
Getsy is excited to start working with the running back group.
“I think it’s a really cool group. I think you have guys with kind of different backgrounds, different styles,” Getsy said during his May 21 press conference. “But like I say all the time, I think I’ve said this too many times in my career, this isn’t the time of the year for backs, right? Backs got to put the pads on and then that’s really when you find out. And yeah, it’s fun to see them and they’re fast, and they look the part, and they’re getting better out there at all their assignments, but we know that those types of players when they get the pads on a training camp, that’s when you really start to find out how much you really like that group.
“But I mean, they’re a really good group of guys. They work hard. They work together, they’re competitive with each other. And then like I said, there is explosiveness in the group, there’s pass-catching in the group, there’s toughness in the group. So, there’s a really cool blend of guys in that room.”
