The Las Vegas Raiders have several decisions to make when the 2023 NFL Draft arrives, but they’ve also got to figure out what they’ll do with Josh Jacobs.
Jacobs is coming off a career year where he won the NFL’s rushing title with 1,653 yards during the 2022 season. The running back was the engine that drove the Raiders’ offense and as a result, was given the franchise tag.
While it seems like a no-brainer that the Raiders would sign Jacobs to a long-term deal, there have been no serious discussions on one via Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Jacobs and the Raiders have not yet engaged in any meaningful talks, although that could change at any moment. With so much focus on the upcoming NFL draft, it stands to reason both sides will reconvene after the draft to try to find some common ground.
It’s not just Jacobs who finds himself in a holding pattern on an extension as Saquon Barkley and Tony Pollard are also waiting for a decision from their respective teams:
Jacobs joins fellow running backs Saquon Barkley and Tony Pollard in the NFL’s new world order, as each produced more than 1,000 yards rushing in the last year of their contracts in 2022, only to be hit with the franchise tag by their respective teams this offseason rather than sign long-term extensions.
In each player’s case, the opportunity exists for them to come to terms with multi-year deals with their teams. But the deadline to do so is July 17. At that point, they will have to play the 2023 season on the running back franchise tag valued at $10.09 million.
The market for running backs has never been lucrative, and even though the NFL’s salary cap has gone up each year teams are still unwilling to commit too much money to running backs. The position is the most replaceable in the league, so it makes sense why teams like the Raiders would be hesitant to hand Jacobs a lucrative extension.
Without a deal in place, it feels like Jacobs will be a non-participant in next week’s offseason program activities. The sessions are not mandatory for players, though most show up to get their work in before the new year. Fans shouldn’t panic if Jacobs indeed doesn’t show, but there still should be some level of concern about his future with the team if the two sides don’t engage in dialogue following the draft.
