Can Packers RB Josh Jacobs ever achieve an incredible mark Derrick Henry has eclipsed?
Football is a game of efficiency, but also longevity. Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry achieved an impressive mark on Sunday, during the win over the Cincinnati Bengals, getting to 10,000 career rushing yards. It's not an easy feat, because it takes a lot of success for a long time — something that has been […]
Football is a game of efficiency, but also longevity. Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry achieved an impressive mark on Sunday, during the win over the Cincinnati Bengals, getting to 10,000 career rushing yards.
It's not an easy feat, because it takes a lot of success for a long time — something that has been particularly difficult for running backs in the current version of the NFL.
Henry achieved the impressive number in the first half of his ninth NFL season. It's a combination of durability (he only missed more than one game once, in 2021, when he played eight games) and productivity (he's had three 1,500-yard seasons, including a 2,000-yard season).
Now, can Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs ever achieve that? It certainly won't be easy.
Derrick Henry is 30 and entered the NFL in 2016. Josh Jacobs is four years younger, 26, and entered the league in 2019.
So far, throughout five full seasons plus five games in 2024, Jacobs has had 5,947 rushing yards. He has had three 1,000-yard seasons and only one 1,500-yard season, when he reached 1,653 yards and became a first-team All-Pro for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Jacobs missed three games as a rookie, in 2019, and four last season. Other than that, he's been pretty durable as well.
Considering that Jacobs had more volume with the Raiders than he will probably have with the Packers, it's fair to expect that Jacobs will take something around six to eight seasons to reach 10,000 rushing yards. And that's considering he will keep playing at a good level, which is certainly not a given at his position.
In six years, Jacobs will be 32 — an age in which running backs tend to regress, or maybe even be out of the league. A special talent as a former first-round pick, Jacobs can break that barrier, and it's a significant challenge for him to be among the greatest of his position to ever play the game.
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