After a strong 2022 season, Josh Jacobs struggled last year, but he’s now ready to make a comeback with a new team.
Jacobs, the Green Bay Packers’ new running back, thinks that having a full training camp will help him recover from a difficult year. Last year with the Las Vegas Raiders, he missed most of the training camp due to a contract dispute.
In 2022, Jacobs led the NFL with 1,653 rushing yards, but last year, he played 13 games and rushed for only 805 yards, less than half of his previous total, averaging just 3.5 yards per carry.
The Packers are hoping Jacobs’ 2023 performance was an anomaly. They signed him to a four-year, $48 million deal, allowing Aaron Jones to leave for the Minnesota Vikings in free agency.
Jacobs feels refreshed by the move to Green Bay. “It’s definitely been exactly what everybody’s told me, as far as the community, how much they support, how nice people are and things like that,” Jacobs said.
“And the locker room, how good the team is and how the young guys come in and work. That’s the thing that everybody was telling me the whole time during the offseason, how it was going to be. It’s been that way so far.”
Jacobs faces the task of replacing Jones, who was very popular in Green Bay.
Jones had a tough 2023 season with injuries, rushing for only 656 yards, but he ran for over 100 yards in each of Green Bay’s last five games, including the playoffs, helping the team reach the NFC divisional playoffs. Jacobs has only rushed for over 100 yards in two of his last 18 games.
Jacobs is seen as having more potential than Jones and is younger, turning 26 while Jones will be 30 in December.
The Packers need Jacobs to avoid repeating his 2023 performance and are confident he will improve.
“I just get so excited that he can do it all,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Wednesday. “He can be a weapon in the passing game, not only as a pass blocker and pass protector but also catching the ball out of the backfield.”
LaFleur described Jacobs as a powerful runner, and quarterback Jordan Love pointed out how hard it is to tackle him.
“When I hand the ball off to him, just watching the way he’s able to get through the holes, find those holes, and his cutting ability in and out of the holes is amazing,” Love said. “It’s fun to watch.”
The concern with Jacobs is that his decline started towards the end of his strong 2022 season. After averaging 5.4 yards per carry and rushing for 1,303 yards in the first 12 games of 2022, he dropped to 3.6 yards per carry in his last five games. This drop continued after he returned from his holdout last year.
Jacobs did have notable games, running for 116 yards against the New York Jets and 110 yards against Kansas City last November, but a quadriceps injury caused him to miss the Raiders’ last four games.
He now joins a Green Bay offense that is expected to be more powerful than the one he left in Las Vegas. Jacobs will be the main running back alongside AJ Dillon and rookie MarShawn Lloyd.
“I think a lot of people are underestimating the backfield that we have,” Jacobs said. “I think we have a very high potential as a group.”
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