NFL Insiders Explain Likelihood of Chiefs Landing Raiders RB Josh Jacobs

You probably didn’t expect to wake up on August 5 and see Josh Jacobs to the Kansas City Chiefs trending on social media, but here we are.

This new NFL rumor stems from NBC Sports insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who listed the Chiefs and Denver Broncos as the top suitors for Jacobs should the Las Vegas Raiders rescind their franchise tag ahead of the 2023 season. This would make the star running back an unrestricted free agent, free to sign anywhere around the league.

“Whether the goal is to get the fans/media on board or to persuade owner Mark Davis that it’s the right move to pocket $10.1 million and move on, the Raiders quite possibly are setting the table to plausibly say, ‘Well, we’ve tried everything [to work things out with Jacobs]. Let’s let him go,’” Florio wrote on August 5.

Continuing: “Jacobs, we’re told, is aware of the possibility and unconcerned about it. He knows that $10.1 million won’t be there if he’s suddenly a free agent in late August or early September. But he would still have a plan. He would be inclined to take the best deal he could get from a contending team, starting with the Chiefs.”

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NFL Insiders Provide Info & Opinion on Raiders RB Josh Jacobs to the Chiefs or Broncos

This has been the offseason of RB frustration around the NFL. Jacobs, like Saquon Barkley and Austin Ekeler among others, feels he deserves more. Free agents like Dalvin Cook and Ezekiel Elliott have not signed for the same reason, and there’s currently no solution in sight for the position as general managers have collectively put their foot down.

“Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Chiefs and Broncos are among the teams interested in Jacobs,” Florio noted within his article, adding later: “The Chiefs make the most sense, and create the most intrigue. Jacobs would become a new-age Marcus Allen, securing freedom from the Raiders and heading straight for their traditional archrivals.”

Las Vegas would never trade Jacobs to KC or Denver, so how realistic is it they’d cut him loose?

“In my opinion: As of now—RB Josh Jacobs still has the ability to negotiate an enhanced 1-year deal in Las Vegas, upwards of Saquon Barkley’s contract with the [New York] Giants,” CBS Sports insider Josina Anderson chimed in on X. “Jacobs, also has the ability to leave money on the table on principle. That’s his prerogative as a person.”

Anderson added some “food for thought” on the likelihood of the Raiders rescinding the tag.

“Raiders are already pocketing the cost/future proration of the tag or an enhanced 1-yr deal as long as it remains unsigned,” she stated. “Also, why consider rescinding the tag & benefit an AFC West suitor? Better to get compensation elsewhere if all else fails.”

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Raiders’ Other 4 Options in Regard to RB Josh Jacobs

The free agent result was Florio’s fifth option for LVR, in all fairness. Here were the other four — which would certainly make more sense as Anderson implied.

Florio outlined: “(1) Jacobs accepts $10.1 million for one season; (2) Jacobs and the Raiders work out an enhanced deal, with more money and/or a promise that he won’t be tagged in 2024; (3) Jacobs skips all or part of the regular season; (4) the Raiders trade Jacobs and his one-year deal.”

As for why none of these options may work out, Florio had an answer for that too, per his sources.

“Jacobs’ strategy is driven not by maximizing his pay in 2023 but by standing on principle,” he explained. “He continues to be upset that the Raiders failed to pick up his fifth-year option and then failed to make him a meaningful offer on a long-term deal after applying the franchise tag. The overriding vibe from the Raiders to Jacobs is that they want to go year-to-year under the tag, keeping him up to two more seasons before he’s left to hit the open market with six seasons of NFL wear and tear.”

A run like that could end Jacobs’ career without a long-term payday — and he appears to understand that given the holdout from training camp.

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