Raiders’ Josh Jacobs’ durability one more trait to admire
ALAMEDA, Calif. — Running back Josh Jacobs has been a revelation in his rookie season in the NFL. He leads the league — by far — in rushing yards by a rookie with 1,061 and leads all rookies with seven rushing touchdowns.
But as much as his production, Raiders coach Jon Gruden and his teammates have been impressed with Jacobs’ toughness and durability. He injured his shoulder on the first play of Oakland’s loss to Green Bay on October 20. But he re-entered that game and ended up taking 21 carries for 124 yards — adding three receptions for 10 yards.
Since then, because of that lingering injury, he’s mainly been listed as a limited practice participant, but he’s still started each of the Raiders’ 12 games .
“You know a lot of the things that these guys are doing behind the scenes go unrecognized,” Gruden said of Jacobs on Monday. “He hurt his shoulder in the Green Bay game. So we’ve tried to be smart with him. But what a great competitor he is.”
Through three quarters of the season, Jacobs’ 218 carries are already well above his career high in college at Alabama. He had 120 rushing attempts in 2018 as a junior, his last season with the Crimson Tide, gaining 640 yards and scoring 11 touchdowns. If Jacobs continues to average 18.2 attempts per game this season, he should easily eclipse his 251 career collegiate rushing attempts in December,
Jacobs has consistently performed well in 2019 and has effectively rewritten the franchise’s rookie rushing records. On Sunday, he became the first Raiders rookie to rush for 1,000 yards. He’s long smashed the previous rookie rushing record of 697 yards set by Marcus Allen in 1982.
But as he’s reiterated practically every week, Jacobs doesn’t think much about his personal accomplishments. That was especially the case on Sunday, given the lopsided 40-9 loss to Kansas City.
“I tell people every week — I don’t really care about stats and stuff like that. I just care about wins — wins and losses. That’s my ultimate goal, just trying to win,” Jacobs said. “I just passed 1,000 yards, but I’m not about to go celebrate or anything like that because we lost. So it just is what it is.”
Jacobs was one of the only offensive bright spots in the blowout loss to the Chiefs, rushing for 104 yards on 17 carries — including a long of 35. He had 14 carries for 95 yards in the first half. Bu with the Raiders behind 31-0 midway through the third quarter, he took only three more handoffs in the final 30 minutes.
Following the game, Jacobs admitted the Raiders’ significant turnover and penalty issues made Sunday’s loss that much more frustrating. “We have a really good team,” Jacobs said. “We’re not necessarily showcasing it right now, which is the biggest thing that’s frustrating me. The thing that I like this week, that was better than last week, is nobody gave up. That was huge for us.”
Jacobs admires the workmanlike attitude of this team. ““We just come in and work every day. That’s the mentality of everybody in this room,” Jacobs said. “We have a special group. We have a group that wants to be better.”
All of that adds up to Gruden feeling that the Raiders have a very good situation at running back.
“He’s going to be one of the best complete backs in all of football, I believe,” Gruden said.
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Contact Myles Simmons at msimmons@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @MylesASimmons on Twitter.
