After the Raiders’ previous regime made some missteps in recent first rounds, the Josh McDaniels–Dave Ziegler duo passed on all three of the team’s fifth-year options for 2023. Josh Jacobs was the most surprising such move, but he turned his contract year into a statement season.
Jacobs leads the NFL with 1,608 rushing yards and tops the league in yards from scrimmage (2,003); he is pushing to join Marcus Allen as the only Raiders to claim rushing titles. Allen’s top season, for which he was awarded MVP honors, came in 1985. While Jacobs might not quite break Allen’s single-season team records for either rushing yards (1,759) or scrimmage yards (2,314), he is unlikely to leave Las Vegas in 2023.
The Raiders are expected to retain Jacobs — either via a long-term contract or the franchise tag — rather than letting him hit free agency, Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Jacobs joins a crowded cast of starter-caliber running backs eligible for free agency in March, but his 2022 season has enhanced his value considerably.
Considering the running back tag is only expected to come in at around $10MM, that becomes a valuable tool for the Raiders regarding Jacobs. The team can cuff the breakthrough back with the tag and either work out an extension before the July 15 deadline or see if 2022 was a fluke before coming back to the table in 2024. The Giants are likely to proceed this way with Saquon Barkley. After entering the season on an uncertain path — one that included a short stretch of trade rumors — the Alabama alum looks like he will remain in place as a cornerstone Raider.
The Raiders took Jacobs 24th overall, selecting him with the pick obtained in the 2018 Khalil Mack trade. Jacobs has logged a career-high (by far) 323 carries this season but has also stayed healthy, playing in all 16 Raiders games. That is a first, as minor injuries nagged him from 2019-21. Jacobs has totaled 1,055 carries as a pro, but his light college workload (251 totes in three seasons) will likely come into play during extension talks. The 24-year-old back presents a case to offer staying power and collect a nice payday. Eight running backs are tied to deals averaging at least $12MM per year. With those $12MM-AAV pacts all signed during either the 2020 or ’21 offseasons, Jacobs will have a case to check in beyond that given the cap’s expected bump past $220MM.
Las Vegas is coming off an eventful week, having effectively separated from Derek Carr. The Raiders benched the nine-year starter for Jarrett Stidham, who had never started a game in four seasons, and Carr is now away from the team. Trade options to move a $40.4MM guarantee off the books will be explored, and Bonsignore adds the team’s new regime had determined Carr was a poor fit early in the season. Long lukewarm on Carr, Mark Davis gave Ziegler and McDaniels freedom to proceed as they saw fit with the former second-round pick.
Carr’s durability notwithstanding, Albert Breer of SI.com notes the Raiders did not believe the veteran quarterback was doing enough to push the ball downfield. They viewed toughness as an issue, per Breer, who adds accountability became another concern for the team. There should be a market for Carr, who would be an upgrade for many teams, but Bonsignore notes the Raiders will cut him — on a dead-money charge of just $5.6MM, thanks to the uniquely structured contract — rather than bring him back and wait for a trade to materialize later. Unless Carr and the Raiders agree to move the guarantee vesting date back from Feb. 15, it appears a near-certainty the longest-tenured QB1 in team history will be gone within the next six weeks.
Davante Adams expressed disappointment with the team’s decision to bench his former college teammate; the duo’s friendship led Adams to seek a trade to Las Vegas. But Adams should not be expected to ask for a trade out of Nevada because Carr is on his way out, Bonsignore adds. Although it would be strange to see Adams remain a Raider but Carr gone, the team has the All-Pro wideout under contract through 2026. The Raiders, however, will likely keep Adams in the loop and are open to appeasing him via trade if their next QB plan does not meet his expectations.
Last season’s playoff berth aside, the new Raiders regime did not view this as a team set to contend in the long term, per Bonsignore. The McDaniels-Ziegler operation has indeed brought a regression, but Davis assured McDaniels will return next season. Following either a six- or seven-win 2022 season, the Raiders will be set for an interesting 2023 — one that will likely feature a host of McDaniels-Tom Brady reunion rumors.
Gee, I wonder why he wouldn’t be as willing to push the ball downfield after getting sacked five times in week one.
Maybe you shouldn’t go all-in on winning in the short term when you only have one offensive lineman you’re sure is any good *after* you’ve pushed all your chips in.
You think those sacks might be because he has cement blocks tied to his feet? He’s so in mobile he waits for sacks. Notice Stidham in his first start skirt pressure and make something happen? Ah! Now you see why Carr is gone.
I think you might be reading too much into one Stidham start. And Carr isn’t mobile, but that doesn’t absolve the offensive line, and the juggling around of it. Stidham also got to play with Waller, Jacobs, and Renfrow all in the game, which Carr hasn’t gotten to do once this year.
It says it right there!! The Raiders new regime had no faith in Carr from the beginning. They sandbagged him all season. “Accountability was a concern” from who, Carr, who has taken the blame every loss for years? He couldn’t move the ball downfield because they wouldn’t let him. The play calling was awful and predictable all season, then magically way better when Carr is gone and JS is starting. They should be ashamed for letting Adams come knowing he was coming because of Carr and they were never going to let Carr have a chance to stick around. If I were Adams, I’d demand to get out because they screwed him.
Yes, they screwed him over by making him the highest paid WR in history. I’m sure his career will take a nose dive too once they improve the QB situation.
Adams didn’t seem to mind vs the 49ers. Dude balled out.
Carr hasn’t been right since he broke his leg…6 years ago. He’s scared. Don’t get started chirping about play calling when Carr calls an audible on most plays, and then ends up throwing it 2 yards.
He’s not scared. That narrative is such a load of BS. Just like this New narrative that clown show in LV is trying to paint about toughness and accountability. Find me a QB who wants to stand in the pocket with no protection.
It’s going to be hilarious if they sign Brady next year because all the Carr detractors are going to see it’s not Carr. Brady hates pressure up the middle, and behind that line, with that trash group running the franchise, he’ll see a lot of it.
Raiders are ranked #7 best in the league with sacks allowed.
He has been sacked, hurried and knocked down less that the vast majority of the league.
His spends more time in the pocket than almost every other QB.
He’s scared.
Just because they’re not giving up sacks doesn’t mean they’re not allowing pressure. They were ranked near the bottom of the league in pressure allowed.
Truth. Davis and his ever changing circus of coaches and GMs have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory too many times. Whoever gets Carr is gonna get a guy who’s hungry for a title and with a decent O-line and a couple of solid receivers, has the skill to make it happen.
QBs scramble my man and leave the pocket. You don’t understand that? Then he panics. He’s done bro.
The Carr detractors all saw last week with Stidham that it has been Carr faults.
Moving Carr is just as much a marketing move as a player personnel move? Vegas is 2nd to last in home attendance. Going for the flashy mobile QB type offense in hopes it brings fans to the stadium … and winning records?
With a higher percentage of attendance than Dallas, Jets, Giants and 3 others. Also their percentage is 95.4 which pretty damned close to the sainted Packers @ 96.5. Now if you want to argue home vs visiting fans you would have a more valid point.
I love how Carr is dismissed as not being a long-term answer at QB and the article ends with rumors of Tom Brady. Yeah that’s a solid long term investment.
Just light the dumpster already and let the fire burn.
It’s already on fire. We’re talking 4 alarm blaze. That franchise is garbage.
I love Carr and him being about the only sense of normalcy over the last 9 years. I also don’t mind if the new regime wants their own guy. I just wish they didn’t do DC dirty like this. They could have waited until after the season or moved him rather than extending him. I would nothing more than for the raiders to finally become a functional organization after all of this, and if moving Carr along helps this so be it. I will be rooting for him going forward, and it would be great if he came back next year with a solid team around him and won a superbowl in Vegas, for whoever he is playing for.
Stidham played just as good or better than Carr could have this past sunday. As a coach, you go with the best players available. Also didn’t hurt to see what Stidham can do in a full game. Not too bad vs a good team.
If the 2 RB’s don’t like the tag, then don’t sign it. I think Lev Bell lost a lot of money over that choice, but it is a choice.
Raiders ownership is a joke. Until they get new ownership, they aren’t going to win.
Why on earth did they pass on Jacobs’s fifth year option?
Coming off his season last year, it was very reasonable to not guarantee eight figures to a running back two years in the future. I like the guy, I’m super impressed with his season, and I’m happy for him, but even now. I wouldn’t want to pay a running back based on his career year in a contract year.
It was sort of meaningless they can tag Jacobs for $10m as an RB (which is a certainty) so they have him anyway, and then renegotiate an extension. It helped Jacobs not hurt him.
Hate your arch rivals the same way the Raiders org hates Derek Carr.