A third-year running back with two 1,000 yard seasons already under his belt, Josh Jacobs had been somewhat of a disappointment during the early half of the season. But since the departure of head coach Jon Gruden, Jacobs has seen an uptick in opportunity and now sits as potentially the lone workhorse back for the rest of the season following Kenyan Drake’s fractured ankle last week.
The Raiders have been a mess during the second half of the season and Jacobs, one of the team’s captains has expressed his disappointment with the team.
“I just kind of come to the offensive line and to the receivers and tell them we got to be who we are or who we think we are and we got to have some juice and some energy and some type of swag to us,” Jacobs explained. “I feel like we just come in stiff and dull in games sometimes and I don’t feel like it should take somebody having a big play for everybody to take to that mindset of wanting to be on that.”
Despite the lack of efficiency on the field for the Raiders, Jacobs has seen massive growth in opportunity as the season has progressed. Over the past four weeks, Jacobs has increased his snap percentage from 58.8 percent to 81.4 percent this weekend. Along with the increased snap share, Jacobs had a career high in targets and receptions (9) and scored the lone touchdown for the Raiders.
With Jacobs increased snap share, and growing role in the passing game, he locks himself in at RB13 on The Wolf’s Rest of Season Rankings and also saw a bump on his Week 14 Rankings. With his increased workload against the Chiefs, who allowed 176 scrimmage yards to rookie star Javonte Williams last week, lock in Jacobs as a fringe RB1 rest of season.