A year after the Raiders placed the franchise tag on running back Josh Jacobs, new Las Vegas general manager Tom Telesco said Tuesday that likely wouldn’t happen again.
“As a GM, you never want to take anything off the table, but I don’t anticipate using that tag this year,” he said at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.
Telesco said he would like to bring back Jacobs, who in 2022 led the NFL in rushing with 1,653 yards and averaged 4.9 yards per carry. He rushed for 805 yards this past season and averaged 3.5 per carry, missing the final month with a quadriceps injury.
Jacobs sat out training camp last year after the sides didn’t agree to a long-term contract. He wound up agreeing to a one-year deal worth up to $12 million.
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Coach Antonio Pierce has publicly supported re-signing the workhorse back. Jacobs has said he wants to return “especially with AP being the coach.”
But whether the sides can agree on a deal remains to be seen given how few lucrative multiyear contracts are offered to running backs after their fifth year.
“I do want to establish a philosophy with the Raiders that we like to re-sign our own,” Telesco said. “Doesn’t bother me that I didn’t draft him. He’s a Raider and he was drafted by the Raiders and he’s a high-level player. So, yeah, we’re going to explore pretty hard to see if we can bring him back here and kind of go from there.”
Second-year back Zamir White stepped into the starting role and rushed for 397 yards over the last four games on a 4.7-yard average.
“From what I see, he’s a very good player,” Telesco said. “He has size, he has speed, he has some nice vision, had some production late in the year. But the way we’re going to play and the way a lot of teams play is you need more than one back and I don’t really see a ‘lead back’-type thing. You’ve got to have more than one.”
Telesco also was asked about wide receiver Davante Adams’ future. Adams has surpassed 1,000 yards receiving in five of the past six seasons, but there has been speculation the Raiders could use him as trade bait to move up in the draft and get one of the top quarterbacks.
“He’s a Raider,” Telesco said of Adams.
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