Josh Jacobs working to regain rookie form with Raiders

When he reaches the 20-yard line in a practice drill and a whistle shrieks for play to stop, Raiders running back Josh Jacobs doesn’t. He sprints forward, the only hindrance across 80 additional yards being a whipping Las Vegas wind flowing through his face mask. The end zone is his finish line.

“In high school, it was never about him and the NFL,” said Jarvis Payne, who coached Jacobs at McLain Senior High in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “I just knew if he got a chance, he’d work harder than anyone.”

Such desire continues this season, as Jacobs tries to recapture all that made for a memorable rookie year.

The answer to why Jacobs’ production has fallen off from last year, when he spent 13 games breaking and then extending a franchise rookie rushing record of Marcus Allen, is not singular in nature.

But the back who gained just 17 yards on 10 carries in a 45-20 loss to Tampa Bay last week isn’t the same as the one who finished 2019 with 1,150 yards and seven touchdowns while missing three games with a shoulder injury.

Something is amiss with the 2019 first-round pick out of Alabama. It’s a combination of things.

“Embarrassed,” Jacobs said of the Tampa Bay outcome. “It was very embarrassing to me. I’m always my hardest critic. I come out every day and nitpick things I can be better at, especially in the run game. It’s just a matter of time before everything starts clicking.”

The Raiders are 3-3 and play at Cleveland on Sunday.

They’d prefer some clicking commenced.

Numbers way down

There are layers to his declining numbers. Jacobs is averaging just 65.7 yards per game and 3.4 per carry, down from 88.4 and 4.8 last season. He has also run behind a virtual revolving door of an offensive line this year.

Different factors have meant different names weekly up front. It means the team’s best run blocker (Richie Incognito) has missed four games while on injured reserve and right tackle Trent Brown has played just 73 offensive snaps while nursing a calf injury and testing positive for COVID-19. It means even backups like tackle Sam Young have been hurt.

“I know the rushing yardage is not what we’d like it to be with Josh,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said. “We’re lacking that one long run. We need a break out a run that we haven’t had yet. We’d like to get Trent Brown and Richie Incognito back to help us out.”

The take-it-the-distance type play doesn’t really fit with Jacobs. Speed is a relative term when to comes to backs. Not all bursts are born alike. Jacobs had a long run of 51 yards last year; his long this season is 16.

He is more violent than blistering. Plow through and over a defender instead of dancing around him. Jacobs is hardly the 49ers’ former track star Raheem Mostert in space.

He did force the most missed tackles in the NFL with 69 last year and is again among the league leaders. Jacobs breaks tackles more than he runs away from them. Yet with such aggressiveness comes more and more potential for injury.

He’s definitely not 100 percent, a bum hip his latest ailment. He’s also no longer a secret. Opposing defenses now scheme with an extra eye toward the Raiders backfield.

“He’s beat up, no doubt,” Gruden said.

By all measures and metrics, Jacobs is performing at a slightly above-average level. Far more solid than spectacular. But for the playoffs to become a viable option if the team’s defense continues to allow boatloads of points and yards, the Raiders need to discover more production on the ground.

‘Heart of gold’

Devontae Booker is a five-year veteran who surprised many by making the team’s 53-man roster out of training camp. But he has done well to spell Jacobs so as to not overtax the starter. Booker has averaged 6.3 yards over 20 carries, with a long of 43.

Gruden said Booker’s presence is needed so that Jacobs isn’t overworked. There is that. And the offensive line woes. And the additional attention from opponents. And the bad hip.

All of it and then some.

“He has a heart of gold,” Payne said of his former star player at McLain. “Josh is also a really tough individual who can take a lot of punishment. He just keeps going.”

All the way across an additional 80 yards, a Las Vegas wind flowing through his face mask and thoughts of returning to his rookie form paramount with each stride.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.