NFL Report; Why Josh Jacobs American football Running Back for Green Bay Packers will miss the game against Detroit Lions
Josh Jacobs’ first season in Green Bay is going according to plan. A seamless replacement for Aaron Jones, Jacobs has been a crucial part of the Packers’ offense, providing both a perfect complementary piece to their passing attack and the main engine of their ground game.
In at least two instances — the Colts game and the Jaguars game — he’s all but won the game for them.
You probably won’t be surprised, then, to hear that Jacobs is putting up some of the best rushing stats we’ve seen from a Packers rusher in quite some time.
Through 13 games, Jacobs has piled up 987 rushing yards, third in the league behind the herculean totals of Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry.
Barring something unexpected, Jacobs is going to cross the 1,000-yard threshold on Thursday night, giving the Packers their first non-Aaron Jones 1000-yard rusher since Eddie Lacy in 2014.
Bolstered by the still relatively new 17-game schedule, Jacobs is on pace for just shy of 1,400 rushing yards this season (1,398, to be precise). If he’s able to keep to that pace, Jacobs will record the Packers’ best rushing season since Ahman Green’s franchise record 1,883 yards in 2003.
Post-Green, only Ryan Grant has broken 1,200 rushing yards in a season, doing so in back to back seasons in 2008 and 2009.
On an all-time scale, Jacobs is already rocketing up the Packers’ career rushing leaderboard. Jacobs already ranks 47th in Packers history and will be comfortably into the top 40 by the end of the year. If he can come close to duplicating this kind of effort next year, Jacobs will almost certainly be in the top 20 in the Packers all-time rushing annals.
It’s been a perfect fit, and in hindsight maybe it was destiny. Jacobs was only available because his relationship with the Las Vegas Raiders had soured.
Jacobs ended up with the Raiders in the first place because they had a spare first round pick in 2019, one they picked up from the Chicago Bears as a part of the Khalil Mack trade prior to the 2018 season. The Packers, who were thought to be in the market for Mack, still ended up reaping an indirect benefit from that trade.
Is it a stretch to say Jacobs is only succeeding in Green Bay because of the Chicago Bears? Definitely, but I’m going to say it anyway. Thanks again, Chicago.