Josh Jacobs, Raiders Agree to New 1-Year Contract Reportedly Worth Up to $12M

The NFL's leading rusher from 2022 is staying put for the Las Vegas Raiders on a new contract for the 2023 season.

Las Vegas and running back Josh Jacobs agreed to terms Saturday on an "upgraded" one-year contract worth up to $12 million, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport:

This comes after the Raiders placed the $10.1 million franchise tag on the 25-year-old in March. While the move was done to further guarantee he wouldn't play elsewhere in 2023, the two sides still had until July 17 to negotiate a long-term deal.

Tyler Dragon of USA Today reported at the time both the team and Jacobs were "hopeful" and maintained "optimism" they could reach such an agreement, but the deadline passed without a deal.

Jacobs ended up holding out from training camp, although Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Aug. 20 the expectation was the running back would report ahead of the Sept. 10 season opener.

Yet the reality of the situation was he could either play on the $10.1 million franchise tag or agree to a modified one-year deal after the previous deadline passed, the latter of which has now come to fruition.

Las Vegas wouldn't have been in this situation this offseason if it didn't decline to pick up Jacobs' fifth-year option last year that would have paid him approximately $8 million for 2023. That total was less than the franchise-tag number for the running back position.

"I felt like everybody else thought it was more serious of a thing than I did," Jacobs said of the declined option, per Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.

"For me, I'm like, 'OK, that just means I'm going to get paid younger.' ... That was my point of view. I felt like it was a perfect situation because it was all on me, I controlled the narrative at that point. Whatever I did, whether it was good or bad, it would be on me. I kind of liked that. I kind of liked that pressure a little bit."

It certainly looked like he liked that pressure.

While Jacobs was a solid playmaker during his first three seasons with a Pro Bowl selection and two years of more than 1,000 rushing yards, he turned the corner during a breakthrough campaign in 2022.

The Alabama product finished with 340 carries for 1,653 yards and 12 touchdowns to go with 53 catches for 400 yards. In addition to leading the league in rushing yards, he led everyone with 97.2 rushing yards per game and had the longest individual run of the season when he scored from 86 yards out to defeat the Seattle Seahawks in overtime.

The running back position has been somewhat devalued in today's game, but Jacobs is just 25 and is coming off a dominant season.

His return means the Raiders have maintained some offensive stability in the same offseason they parted ways with quarterback Derek Carr.