The Las Vegas Raiders got an important piece back in the building when All-Pro running back Josh Jacobs agreed to a restructured one-year deal. The NFL’s leading rusher last season, Jacobs is ready to put all of the offseason drama in the rearview and focus on dominating this season.
Jacobs is also returning with a new number as he is switching from the number 28 back to his familiar number 8, which he wore as a child and in college at Alabama. While a number change wouldn’t mean much to most, for Jacobs, it’s just a different feeling.
The Raiders back spoke with Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and said that wearing the number 8 just makes him feel like a superhero:
“It’s just the number I feel like brings out something different in me,” Jacobs said. “It makes me feel like a superhero, for real.”
The Raiders would undoubtedly love for Jacobs to put up more superhero-type numbers as he did a season ago. This offense has all the makings of an explosive one, but it will need Jacobs at full throttle to accomplish the goals they have set out.
Obviously, Jacobs not being around for training camp could potentially have a negative effect as it could take him some time to get re-acclimated, but the back insisted he felt fine physically, and it has simply been a matter of refreshing himself with the playbook:
He said he hasn’t missed a step physically, that he had a workout plan when away and stuck with it. That he didn’t feel at all lost during his initial practice last week. That it was more about refreshing the mental side of things.
“Just with the playbook and everything,” Jacobs said. “New plays and all that. I didn’t want to get left behind. But when I came in, I didn’t have any errors. So now it’s just about stacking days.”
Jacobs seems to be solely focused on football now, and it sounds as if he will be ready to go when the Raiders kick off their season on the road against the Denver Broncos. A division game away from home to start the year is a tough test, but one that can send a message if the Raiders come out strong and get the victory.
With Jacobs in the backfield, this team has an excellent chance to do just that and get the 2023 season started the right way.
