In May 2026, Packers running back Josh Jacobs crossed a line that should never be crossed. And neither he nor his representatives are acting accordingly in what should be an effort to seek redemption.
He pleaded no contest to battery of a woman. He’s fighting in court to keep the video secret. He’s responding to additional allegations through a strident statement from his lawyers attacking the accusers.
The most tone-deaf gesture of all came last Thursday night, when he celebrated a touchdown by pretending to wear, and to be released from, handcuffs.
His implausible explanation, which accused Prime Video of not showing enough of the celebration and attacked the media for interpreting the images with their lyin’ eyes, was contradicted by the full video of the event.
That’s not the way to play this. His no-contest plea is equivalent to saying, “I did it.” He should be contrite. He should be apologetic. He should be seeking redemption.
The Packers continue to stand behind him, primarily because he’s the best running back on the roster and they want to win games. Their reported interest in Colts running back Jonathan Taylor strongly suggests that, if the Packers could get Taylor, the support for Jacobs would immediately evaporate.
Here’s the basic reality. If the Packers were to cut Jacobs, would anyone sign him? The Chiefs took plenty of heat last week for adding kicker Justin Tucker to the practice squad; they may not be inclined to give another second chance to a player whose arrival would compound the negative reaction to Tucker’s arrival.
The reality, in every sport at every level, is obvious. If the player has enough skill and ability, someone will find a way to justify behavior that shouldn’t be tolerated by an industry that relies so heavily on support from the public, both directly through ticket sales and TV ratings and indirectly through taxpayer funding for stadium projects.
Still, Jacobs has done himself no favors by adopting a posture of defiance. He did something no man should ever do. He’s lucky he’s good enough at football to not lose his job over it.
If he was at the bottom of the depth chart in Green Bay, he would have been gone a long time ago.
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When the schedule is released every May, plenty of standalone games that look good at the time morph into something not quite as appetizing as the season unfolds. Some standalone games get better with time.
This year, there’s a trio of massive games lurking on Christmas Day.
At 1:00 p.m. ET, it’s the Packers at the Bears. At 4:30 p.m. ET, it’s the Bills at the Broncos. At 8:15 p.m., it’s the Rams at the Seahawks.
With the Bears emerging as a threat to win the NFC North and the No. 1 seed in the conference, the rematch with their biggest rivals (who beat them 31-7 in Week 5) becomes must-see TV. Bills at Broncos, a rematch of a postseason overtime classic that got Buffalo coach Sean McDermott fired, should have direct implications on two division races and the chase for the lone bye in the AFC.
The nightcap shapes up to be not a battle for the NFC West title and/or the top seed but a potential elimination game, given that both Seattle and L.A. are currently 4-4.
Regardless, all three games should be significant. Impactful. Consequential.
And they’ll more than make up for the Christmas Eve game, which has the 2-5 Texans at the 2-6 Eagles.
With several quarterbacks injured on their 53-man roster, the Ravens have brought in another.
Per Tom Pelissero of Netflix, Baltimore is signing Kedon Slovis to its 53-man roster off of Green Bay’s practice squad.
Slovis, 25, has a connection to the Ravens’ staff through quarterbacks coach Israel Woolfork. He was Slovis’ position coach last season with the Cardinals.
Slovis made his pro debut last season with Arizona, appearing in two games. He attempted only two passes.
On Baltimore’s 53-man roster, Lamar Jackson is out indefinitely with a right thumb injury, Tyler Huntley was a non-participant on the Monday injury report with a toe issue, and Joe Fagnano was limited on Monday’s report with an ankle injury.
The team added Austin Reed to the practice squad at that position on Monday.
Baltimore will be at home to play the Jaguars on Thursday night.
The Packers are signing free agent quarterback Cam Miller to the practice squad, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports.
The Dolphins waived him Aug. 30, and he remained a free agent until Monday.
The Packers have Jordan Love and Tyrod Taylor on the active roster. They still list Kedon Slovis on the practice squad.
The Raiders made Miller a sixth-round pick in 2025, and the Dolphins signed him off of Las Vegas’ practice squad late last season.
Miller, 25, has never appeared in a regular-season game.
It looks like this week will, in fact, be the week for Micah Parsons to return to practice.
Head coach Matt LaFleur told reporters in his Monday press conference that it’s the team’s “intention” to have Parsons return to practice.
“Again, it’s going to be a process trying to get him back,” LaFleur said. “But we’re hopeful that — it’s going to be dependent upon the next couple of days. But, we’re hopeful that he’ll be able to get out there sometime this week.”
The Packers had meetings and a walk-through on Monday after defeating the Panthers last Thursday night. LaFleur noted Parsons was with trainers during that session, explaining why Parsons has not yet been designated to return.
But even once Parsons returns to the field, Green Bay isn’t expecting him to play right away. The club plans to use a good portion of the 21-day window to activate him off of the physically unable to perform list.
“I would just say, like everything around here, it’s pretty fluid in terms of how he responds and just the progress he’s going to, hopefully, continue to make leading up to when he’s available,” LaFleur said. “If I had a bet on it, it’s going to be more toward the longer end than the shorter end.”
Parsons suffered a torn ACL late last season.
Multiple reports over the weekend indicated the Packers are targeting Week 12 for his return, which would be the “Thanksgiving Eve” game against the Rams in Los Angeles.
More allegations of domestic violence against Packers running back Josh Jacobs surfaced late last week and head coach Matt LaFleur addressed them at the start of his press conference on Monday.
Jacobs missed the first six games of the season while on the Commissioner Exempt list after he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and criminal damage related to a May arrest and the other allegations were made to police in the wake of that arrest. The NFL said in a statement on Saturday that those allegations will be reviewed as part of its ongoing investigation into Jacobs’s conduct and LaFleur said that the team will “just let the process play out” without any change to Jacobs’s current status.
“Obviously we’re aware of the prior allegations on Josh,” LaFleur said. “We’re going to allow the NFL to do its process, but I would anticipate him being a member of us moving forward. That’s really all I have to speak on.”
Jacobs drew attention last Thursday with a touchdown celebration that appeared to mimic being placed in handcuffs. Jacobs offered an alternate explanation and LaFleur said that he had a conversation with the back about being more aware of the optics surrounding such choices, but declined to offer any other details of their discussion.
Thursday Night Football continues to draw larger audiences, generally. Specifically, there will be some peaks and valleys.
In Week 7, Patriots-Bears racked up 19.86 million for Prime Video. In Week 8, the number for Panthers-Packers fell to 16.56 million.
While it was a 26-percent bump over the Chargers’ 37-10 blowout of the Vikings in Week 8 of the 2025 season (13.13 million), it also landed a full one million below the season-to-date average of 17.56 million for TNF.
This week, a Jaguars-Ravens game that looked very good on paper as of Sunday morning has become a much more questionable endeavor, given the injuries to Baltimore quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley. It could be undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano under center for the Ravens.
Which won’t be good for business. But will be good for the Jaguars.
Patriots receiver A.J. Brown was not able to play in the Week 8 win over the Dolphins due to a knee injury.
At this point, it’s unclear if Brown will be on the field for Week 9.
“We’ll see how he progresses during the week. He’s getting treatment here,” Vrabel said Monday, via Karen Guregian of MassLive.com. “We’ll see Wednesday what those guys that were unavailable for the game, and what they look like and whatever came up during the game.”
Brown, in his first season with the Patriots, has played just three games so far this year. He’s caught just nine passes for 101 yards in those contests.
The wideout previously missed time with a high-ankle sprain.
Vrabel was similarly mum about the status of tight end Hunter Henry, who is dealing with a foot injury.
But Vrabel said Mack Hollins and Reggie Gilliam could “potentially” get back on the practice field, with both players currently on injured reserve.
The Patriots will host the Packers on Sunday afternoon in Week 9.
On Sunday afternoon, Josh Jacobs’s lawyers issued a lengthy and detailed statement responding to the additional allegations of violence contained in documents released by local police on Friday, in connection with the battery charge to which Jacobs previously pleaded no contest.
In the statement, Jacobs’s lawyers claim that one of the three new allegations was previously communicated to, and investigated by, the NFL.
Both the NFL and the Packers declined comment regarding the new statement, in response to inquiries from PFT.
Regardless of the comments from the people who are representing Jacobs, the league will do its due diligence. The Packers surely will, too. And they could, potentially, decide to move on from Jacobs — especially if any of the new information is inconsistent with anything he has previously told the team.
Here’s the best evidence that the three allegations against Packers running back Josh Jacobs have raised serious concerns about Jacobs’s future in Green Bay specifically, and in the NFL generally.
Jacobs’s lawyers have issued a lengthy statement addressing the allegations that were not previously known, until the authorities released the information to the media on Friday.
Here’s the full text of the statement:
“Last week the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department released its case file to media. The file includes summaries of three telephone interviews describing events in 2021 and 2022. Josh Jacobs denies all three accounts and has a substantial body of tangible evidence to back up his assertions.
“The police department’s released file contains only phone interviews, taken years after the fact, with no additional investigation, save for an acknowledgement that Josh did nothing wrong. Josh was not given an opportunity to present evidence to Hobart-Lawrence in response to the uncorroborated report, primarily because Hobart-Lawrence took no action related to the unsupported and stale allegations.
“One of these three women made a claim to the NFL, which reviewed it and decided no action was warranted. Josh has kept evidence that supports his accounts and the NFL’s decision. Nothing in the released file indicates that any such evidence was used or even sought. Indeed, the police report did not even present any of this information.
“Another woman made a claim in 2021, but only after Josh called the Las Vegas police to his home to report the woman for misconduct. A police report was written that day, which effectively undermined her claims. No further action was taken by any authority after she was removed from Josh’s home.
“Josh denies any physical altercation with the third woman. She first contacted Josh and asked to visit. She came to Las Vegas and stayed at his home. Another person was present in the house during part of her stay. She stayed there overnight and left the following evening — on her own, in a car she ordered herself. The receipt for that ride is in the police file the department released, and it is consistent with Josh’s account of how the visit ended, not hers.
“Josh took responsibility for what happened in May. He entered into an agreement with prosecutors for two misdemeanors, and he is meeting the court’s requirements.
“The three accounts are old, are hearsay, and easily disproven, yet released to the media by police without any investigation to determine whether they were accurate or contradicted by evidence. Josh is answering them in detail because of the character assassination that is occurring, unfairly threatening his career.”
Based on the statement, only one of the three women contacted the NFL. The other two, as to the NFL, are apparently new.
All three of them could be new to the Packers, who have said nothing since the three additional allegations came to light. And that’s an important dynamic to remember. Even if the NFL doesn’t take action against Jacobs based on these additional allegations, the Packers could decide to move on from him.
It’s unclear where it will go from here. The statement makes it clear that Jacobs has serious concerns about the impact of the allegations on his career — and that’s without the league or the public seeing the video from the May 2026 incident. If/when the league and the Packers see that video, there’s a chance the other allegations won’t matter.
