Josh Jacobs saw his yards-per-carry drop from 4.8 YPC in his rookie year to 3.9 YPC last year and it sounds his drop in production may have inspired the former first-round draft pick to make a few adjustments in the offseason.
Sirius XMNFL producer Eddie Borsilli is host of the Yards Per Attempt podcast and he talked this week about what he saw from Jacobs at training camp and why he thinks Jacobs might be on the brink of having a big year in Jon Gruden’s offense.
“[Josh] said he usually plays around 228 pounds,” Borsilli said on his Sunday podcast. “He said he is down about 8 pounds so he’s at 220. You remember he kind of bulked up a little bit maybe to carry a little bit more of the workload [last year]. He’s actually slimmed down a little bit and talked about being in shape… I think Josh Jacobs wants to be a three-down back, which he should be, and more of a complete back catching passes out of the backfield.”
Looking back to last year, there is no question that Jacobs was not nearly as effective carrying the football. He was more productive in his rookie year (playing through a serious shoulder injury) than he was last year and it’s possible that conditioning and weight may have been a factor.
Jacobs weighed 220 at the NFL combine in 2019 and that’s the weight the Raiders have always listed him. This year it sounds like that’s the weight he will be playing at again.
twitter: @raidersbeat
The beatdown makes a report on a Raider player that’s not garbage, you couldn’t have made this on your own, must have over head a real reporter because you don’t have access to the team
Have a monster year.