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With No Long-Term Deal, Jacobs' Unlikely To Report To Camp
The deadline for the Las Vegas Raiders and running back Josh Jacobs to reach a long-term contract agreement has come and passed.

Monday marked the deadline for the franchise-tagged running back to be signed to a long-term deal this year, and NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported that the two sides failed to come to an agreement.

The soonest Jacobs and the Raiders can negotiate a new contract is now during the 2024 offseason.

As NFL.com's Eric Edholm reminded readers, the Raiders opted to use their franchise tag on Jacobs, 25, back in March, and the Pro Bowl running back has yet to sign the $10.091 million tender. This leaves the door open to an extended absence from training camp for Jacobs, who is not subject to fines for missing practices because he's not under contract.

Jacobs, a first-round pick out of Alabama in 2019, was a workhorse for the Raiders in 2022, establishing career bests in carries (340), rushing yards (1,653) and receiving yards (400), as well as tying his previous high with 12 rushing touchdowns. Jacobs also led the league in rushing yards, rushing yards per game and yards from scrimmage and had the NFL's longest run last season at 86 yards.

Jacobs was always capable of leading the league in rushing someday; that he accomplished it in Year 4 with the Las Vegas Raiders wasn't exactly surprising.

For Jacobs to average nearly 100 yards per game and play with the league's leading receiver in Davante Adams isn't the most impressive part, either.

It's that Jacobs could so quickly bounce back from a mediocre (by his standards) 2021 season when he posted just 872 yards, or 58.1 per game.

Of course, you have to chalk much of that up to the scheme.

Josh McDaniels may have gotten off to a brutal start in take two of his head-coaching career, but the offensive schemes he runs are set up to squeeze the most out of his best weapons. You want Jacobs, a 220-pound bowling ball, running north and not east-west.

The Raiders declined Jacobs' fifth-year option prior to last season, which pushed him into free agency a year early. If he and the Raiders can't eventually figure out a long-term arrangement, Jacobs again will be a free agent in 2024.

Meanwhile, the only other Las Vegas Raiders running back in our top-75 at the position is White, although Ameer Abdullah and Brandon Bolden also occupy spots behind Jacobs on their depth chart.

Abdullah and Bolden are on the back nines of their careers, while White makes the most sense to assume the No. 2 running back mantle in Las Vegas this year.

The main problem with this from a fantasy perspective is that White will only be viable if Jacobs doesn't play.

The Raiders had 428 rushing attempts as a team in McDaniels' first season as coach, and, as noted above, Jacobs was responsible for 340 of them, a whopping 79.4 percent.

The next closest running backs were White and Bolden with 17 apiece.

White is more talented than his fourth-round draft status would lead on; he was a national top-10 high school recruit before ACL tears in both knees set him back early on in his college career. But again, his value is tied to Jacobs' presence -- or lack thereof.