Running back Josh Jacobs has still not signed his franchise tender, but he is apparently likely to do so sooner than later.
According to a report from Vinny Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jacobs is expected to report to the team before the Raiders’ season opener against the Broncos on Sept. 10.
Exactly when Jacobs will return to the fold is still unclear.
There has not been much movement on the contract front between the Raiders and Jacobs throughout the offseason. Though Las Vegas was reportedly open to re-starting talks with the running back earlier this month after the deadline to reach a long-term deal came and went in mid-July, nothing has materialized to this point.
On Sunday, head coach Josh McDaniels said he didn’t have any news on Jacobs. But McDaniels did note that practice time “is important for every player.”
“[T]his is the National Football League, so it’s not easy to go out there and just play games and do it at the speed and level that you want to do it at unless you’ve really kind of had enough opportunity to get yourself ready to do that,” McDaniels said in his video conference. “We’ve talked all year to our team about nothing carries over from one year to the next. You have to re-establish your individual level of performance and collectively as a unit, and ultimately as a team we have to establish and re-establish ourselves in terms of what we’re going to be about.
“So, whether it would be JJ or somebody else, it’s the same thing. Everybody’s got to have an opportunity to do that, get re-acclimated to the pace, the speed of things. But again, I have no new information on the whole situation.”
Jacobs led the league last year with 1,653 yards rushing and 2.053 yards from scrimmage with 12 touchdowns.
The Raiders and Jacobs can come to an agreement on a renegotiated one-year deal — as the Giants did with Saquon Barkley — or Jacobs can sign the one-year franchise tender on the table for $10.1 million. Because Jacobs is not currently under contract, he’s not subject to fines for missing training camp and the preseason so far.
