Developments in the Josh Jacobs legal situation this week. First you had GM Brian Gutekunst saying the team was prepared for the possibility of a league suspension. A day later came the charges that made it seem a little more likely.
Back in May, Jacobs was arrested for some sort of domestic incident. He wasn't charged at that time; now he has been. The charges are both misdemeanors, but one is battery. There's apparently a video out there, though it's not clear what's on it.
"What's on it" will probably mean the difference between the NFL letting the legal situation play out, or Jacobs finding himself either on the exempt list or maybe off the roster.
I'm not going to touch the legal stuff; I don't know what happened, what the police have, etc. What we can say for sure is that Jacobs not being on the field in Week 1 is possible, making MarShawn Lloyd look like one of the better backup running backs to select. Mike Washington in Las Vegas, Lloyd in Green Bay, a couple of other clear backups to heavily used starters (Ian wrote about it earlier this week); these guys have the potential to dramatically outperform where they'll be selected in most drafts.
With Jacobs, frankly, I wasn't interested in drafting him this year even before the legal stuff came out. He's a 28-year-old running back with a lot of mileage on him, and he comes off a pretty lousy half-season in Green Bay.
Looking at the second half of the year, Jacobs (who missed 2 games entirely and played hurt or left early in others) was a pretty frustrating player. Among backs who had significant roles in at least 7 games, the guys to put up worse per-game numbers (PPR) were either in committees or had no passing game role. Jacobs wasn't even a top-20 running back over that time period.
| RUNNING BACKS, 2ND HALF OF 2025 (PER GAME) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | G | Run | No | Rec | TD | PPR |
| Jahmyr Gibbs, Det. | 9 | 74.7 | 5.3 | 46.6 | 1.22 | 24.8 |
| Christian McCaffrey, S.F. | 8 | 75.8 | 5.1 | 37.3 | 1.13 | 23.2 |
| Bijan Robinson, Atl. | 9 | 98.1 | 4.2 | 39.7 | .81 | 22.9 |
| DeVon Achane, Mia. | 7 | 106.3 | 3.4 | 30.6 | .71 | 21.4 |
| Chase Brown, Cin. | 8 | 74.9 | 4.5 | 29.5 | 1.00 | 20.9 |
| Derrick Henry, Balt. | 9 | 107.3 | 1.0 | 11.6 | 1.11 | 19.6 |
| Jonathan Taylor, Ind. | 8 | 86.3 | 2.4 | 20.0 | .75 | 17.5 |
| James Cook, Buff. | 9 | 83.8 | 2.2 | 21.2 | .78 | 17.4 |
| Rhamondre Stevenson, N.E. | 6 | 54.0 | 2.7 | 29.3 | 1.06 | 17.3 |
| Travis Etienne, Jac. | 9 | 56.6 | 1.9 | 20.1 | 1.11 | 16.2 |
| Kenneth Gainwell, Pitt. | 9 | 35.2 | 5.1 | 40.8 | .56 | 16.0 |
| RJ Harvey, Den. | 7 | 46.6 | 3.1 | 25.9 | .86 | 15.5 |
| Kyren Williams, LAR | 9 | 74.0 | 1.8 | 12.8 | .78 | 15.1 |
| Tyrone Tracy, NYG | 8 | 70.4 | 2.9 | 25.1 | .38 | 14.7 |
| Ashton Jeanty, L.V. | 9 | 54.2 | 3.9 | 23.7 | .44 | 14.3 |
| TreVeyon Henderson, N.E. | 5 | 70.6 | 1.2 | 8.2 | .80 | 13.9 |
| Saquon Barkley, Phi. | 8 | 77.6 | 1.6 | 14.3 | .42 | 13.3 |
| D'Andre Swift, Chi. | 9 | 69.2 | 1.8 | 11.9 | .56 | 13.2 |
| Jaylen Warren, Pitt. | 9 | 61.6 | 2.1 | 15.6 | .56 | 13.2 |
| Zach Charbonnet, Sea. | 9 | 55.6 | 1.4 | 9.7 | .78 | 12.6 |
| Javonte Williams, Dall. | 7 | 69.3 | 1.4 | 6.3 | .57 | 12.4 |
| Breece Hall, NYJ | 8 | 60.5 | 1.9 | 21.5 | .38 | 12.3 |
| Tony Pollard, Ten. | 8 | 75.3 | 1.8 | 7.9 | .38 | 12.3 |
| Kenneth Walker, Sea. | 9 | 61.7 | 2.3 | 22.4 | .22 | 12.1 |
| Josh Jacobs, G.B. | 7 | 56.4 | 1.9 | 11.1 | .57 | 12.0 |
| Rico Dowdle, Car. | 8 | 42.6 | 3.0 | 20.6 | .25 | 10.8 |
| Aaron Jones, Min. | 8 | 51.1 | 2.6 | 15.0 | .25 | 10.7 |
| Quinshon Judkins, Cle. | 7 | 48.7 | 2.0 | 15.9 | .33 | 10.5 |
| Woody Marks, Hou. | 8 | 57.8 | 1.4 | 5.4 | .25 | 9.2 |
Injuries played into that, no question, but it's not unreasonable to say Jacobs has probably played his best football. He's also missed a portion of the preseason due to a groin injury, though that seems to be behind him now.
But add in the legal concerns, and when the next preseason update comes out, it's fairly certain he'll be ranked low enough that somebody else will be rolling the dice with him before me in every draft. Lloyd and to a lesser extent Chris Brooks, though -- those guys I'm interested in.
--Andy Richardson
