Josh Jacobs has been holding out from the Las Vegas Raiders‘ training camp practices and preseason games after being assigned the franchise tag over the offseason, but a resolution could be in sight.
Jacobs is expected to report to the Raiders before the regular season gets underway, according to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The Raiders’ season begins on Sept. 10.
Josh Jacobs Expected To Report to Raiders By Week 1
Jacobs and the Raiders attempted to work out a long-term deal before the NFL’s July 17 franchise tag extension deadline, but the two sides couldn’t agree on terms.
As such, Jacobs is set to earn $10.1 million — fully guaranteed — for the upcoming season.
However, the Raiders could potentially tweak Jacobs’ deal in order to convince him to report to the team, just as the Giants did for franchise-tagged running back Saquon Barkley.
New York agreed to give Barkley a $2 million signing bonus and add $909,000 worth of incentives to his deal. In order to max out his incentives package, Barkley would have to reach 1,350 yards, 65 receptions, and 11 touchdowns and have the Giants reach the playoffs.
Notably, New York did not give Barkley a no-franchise tag clause for 2024. Las Vegas could follow that precedent, or they might be willing to give in more than New York did in negotiations with Barkley.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels didn’t offer any specifics on Jacobs but said practice sessions are “important for every player.”
“This is the National Football League, so it’s not easy to go out there and just play games and do it at the speed and level that you want to do it at unless you’ve really kind of had enough opportunity to get yourself ready to do that,” McDaniels said.
“We’ve talked all year to our team about nothing carries over from one year to the next. You have to re-establish your individual level of performance and collectively as a unit, and ultimately as a team, we have to establish and re-establish ourselves in terms of what we’re going to be about.
“So, whether it would be JJ or somebody else, it’s the same thing. Everybody’s got to have an opportunity to do that, get re-acclimated to the pace, the speed of things. But again, I have no new information on the whole situation.”
Because Jacobs never signed his franchise tag, he’s not technically under contract with the Raiders. Thus, he hasn’t been subject to daily fines for skipping training camp or the preseason.
Jacobs, 25, led the NFL in rushing yards (1,653) and yards from scrimmage (2,053) in 2022 while earning a first-team All-Pro nod and finishing fifth in Offensive Player of the Year voting.