Raiders' Josh Jacobs receives huge disrespect by ESPN in recent projections
Let's start with the fact that the Las Vegas Raiders had the best running back and wide receiver in the league last year. And, if that's too much for you, you can easily say top-three.Davante Adams was still elite, and Josgh Jacobs had the best season a Raiders running back has had since Marcus Allen, […]
Let's start with the fact that the Las Vegas Raiders had the best running back and wide receiver in the league last year. And, if that's too much for you, you can easily say top-three.
Davante Adams was still elite, and Josgh Jacobs had the best season a Raiders running back has had since Marcus Allen, at least that's what it feels like. With his career season, Jacobs was on top of the league with the 2022 rushing title.
Now, no one expects him to do better, or even the same, because that's extremely hard. However, no one also expects him to have a huge dropoff like ESPN does.
ESPN thinks Raiders' Josh Jacobs has a worse season
It's hard to beat 2022 if your Jacobs and no one expects him to; however, ESPN has him taking a significant drop off. ESPN is predicting Jacobs finish with 1,159 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. Last season, he finished with 1,653 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Here is what ESPN had to say:
Now that the Raiders' first-team All-Pro running back is back in the fold after signing his adjusted franchise tag worth as much as $12 million with per-game bonuses, two questions remain. First, how long will it take Jacobs to get into football shape, and second, how happy is Jacobs with his reworked one-year deal? There is a thin line between rest and rust, and Jacobs — who sat out the entire offseason program, training camp, and exhibition season — last took a hit on Jan. 7. But whenever Jacobs is ready for a full workload, coach Josh McDaniels will be happy to ride his every-down back again. Signature stat: Jacobs ran for 1,653 yards in 2022, the second most in a season in Raiders history (Marcus Allen had 1,759 in 1985). — Paul Gutierrez, ESPN
That is a significant dropoff for some odd reason. The Raiders will be in year two of a new offensive system that has a lot to do with Jacobs and has much better pieces around Jacobs that will allow him to be better in the run game, such as the offensive line.
Having a dropoff of nearly 700 yards is crazy, and I doubt Jacobs will. Maybe the guys at ESPN think he will have a worse season because of missing training camp; however, he will still have an entire week to work out with the team, which is plenty.
If I predicted his numbers, I'd say Jacobs gets near 1,500 rushing yards.
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