If, as recently reported, Raiders running back Josh Jacobs plans to report before Week 1 and, in turn, to collect his full $10.1 million for 2023, the Raiders are on notice.
The Raiders, if they’re going to rescind the tender, need to do it before Jacobs accepts.
The Raiders have done nothing overt to create the impression that they’d be inclined to reclaim the $10.1 million earmarked for Jacobs and use it elsewhere. The circumstances continue to point to it as a possibility.
They didn’t pick up his fifth-year option in 2022. Then, after he had a huge season, they had to apply the tag. They made no real effort to sign him to a long-term deal, making him a perfunctory offer so that Jacobs couldn’t say they didn’t try to sign him beyond 2023.
Then, the Raiders leaked the idea that they’d be willing to explore a Saquon-style deal that gave Jacobs the opportunity to earn more money with incentives, but did nothing to actually put that on the table — at least not as of a couple of weeks ago.
Consider where the market is. Last Monday, Ezekiel Elliott signed for “up to” $6 million. Hours later, Dalvin Cook took a base package of $7 million, but with a lot of the money tied up in per-game bonuses. Jacobs gets $10.1 million guaranteed, simply by showing up.
For the same reasons Jacobs should pounce on the money while it’s still there, the Raiders should ask themselves whether it should still be there.
Maybe the powers-that-be want owner Mark Davis to come to that conclusion on his own. Maybe he will. If he’s ever going to, the clock is ticking.
And given the chance that the clock will strike 12 soon, Jacobs shouldn’t hesitate to take the $10.1 million. If he’s not going to skip regular-season games, there’s no reason to not show up now and short circuit the team’s ability to rescind the tender.