Getty Las Vegas Raiders RB Josh Jacobs.
The Las Vegas Raiders need to make some additions in free agency this offseason but they have a few players they should try to retain. The player they are most likely to retain is running back Josh Jacobs. Heading into the season, it looked like he was entering his last year in Las Vegas with the team declining the fifth-year option on his contract.
He responded by leading the NFL with 2,053 yards from scrimmage and being named First-Team All-Pro by the Associated Press and NFL Players Association. Jacobs is simply too valuable for the Raiders to allow him to seek other teams in free agency. The franchise tag is certainly an option but the team would likely prefer to ink him to a long-term deal. ESPN’s Field Yates discussed Jacobs’s future in Las Vegas and believes they can sign him to a sizable contract.
“It will be an offseason of change in Las Vegas, but retaining Jacobs should be near the top of the to-do list,” Yates wrote. “While running back is mainly a replaceable position, Jacobs is elite and means a lot to the program. He was named a team captain late in the season when the incumbent captains requested it. That speaks volumes. It might be a deal worth $14 million or so per year after Jacobs led the league in rushing with 1,653 yards.”
Is $14 Million Enough for Jacobs?
San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey is currently the highest-paid running back in the NFL with a salary of $16 million a year, per Over the Cap. Ezekiel Elliott and Alvin Kamara both make $15 million a season and nobody else makes over $13 million. $14 million a season seems like a fair price for Jacobs.
There’s no doubt he’ll want to be the highest-paid running back in the league. He was voted the best player at the position in 2022 by his peers. However, paying running backs has fallen out of fashion in the NFL. It’s highly unlikely another team would pay Jacobs more than $14 million a year if he hit the open market. That’s certainly better for him than having to play on a franchise tag in 2023.
Josh Jacobs:
•2 Pro Bowls
•1 rushing title
•1 season of 2,000 total yards
•4 seasons of over 1,000 total yards
•4 total games missed
•40 touchdowns
Why do people sleep on this man?
Raiders GM Dave Ziegler Praises Jacobs
General manager Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels didn’t see Jacobs as a part of the Raiders’ future when they took the jobs. That’s clear by the fact they declined his fifth-year option. Now that they’ve seen him play and the impact he has, they’ve changed their outlook.
Though their backgrounds suggest they would never pay a running back big money, Jacobs is the best running back they’ve ever worked with. The Raiders still have work to do to ensure Jacobs is on the roster next season but some recent comments from Ziegler would suggest that they plan on retaining him for a long time.
“Josh embodies a lot of the qualities that we want to build this foundation on,” Ziegler said on the January 12 episode of “Upon Further Review.” “He loves football, he’s dependable, he’s tough, and he’s a really good football player, and he’s explosive, which is an important thing too, and so those are the types of players that we want to be Raiders, and that we want to build around.”