UPDATING the story posted here earlier this week. In the wake of Josh Jacobs being charged with two misdemeanors, including assault, the NFL has placed him on the Commissioner's Exempt list. Jacobs can't practice or play while on this list.
Recapping: 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. Enough, evidently, that the NFL doesn't want him representing them in games until they have more information.
Here's the Ian Rapoport tweet.
Jacobs' tenure on the exempt list is indefinite. The league could determine nope, he's good, and remove him. But that's unlikely. He could be on it all year (that's what happened with Adrian Peterson).
MarShawn Lloyd should open as Green Bay's starter. We're working on the Update right now, so I'm not exactly sure where Lloyd will show up in the rankings. But I'm guessing he'll be a Week 1 starter and maybe in the lineup as a featured running back for half the season, or more. I think he's going to show up in the 25-30 range among running backs. Risky of course; maybe Jacobs is cleared. But the league probably wouldn't have taken this action unless they had a pretty good idea that there was more than just smoke to this situation.
Chris Brooks will be the No. 2, picking up maybe up to a third of the work, and the Packers traded for last year's third-rounder Kaleb Johnson from Pittsburgh (who was probably going to be cut). Lloyd, I think, is the valuable beneficiary. Keeping in mind he's very much an unknown: 6 career carries his first two seasons in the league. Not much to go on, obviously.
Below is what we posted earlier this week.
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
