All-NFC North Team: Josh Jacobs or Aaron Jones at Running Back?

Our SI.com team publishers have selected the all-NFC North team. Part 2 is the running backs, headlined by the Green Bay Packers’ Josh Jacobs and his predecessor, Aaron Jones.

Green Bay Packers running backs Emanuel Wilson (31) and Josh Jacobs (8) are shown at minicamp. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

 

GREEN BAY, Wis. – New Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs nudged aside former Packers running back Aaron Jones as the first-team selection for SI.com’s All-NFC North team.

The team was selected by our four NFC North team publishers. Jacobs received two first-team votes and two second-team votes. Jones also received two first-place votes but the Lions’ Jahmyr Gibbs received a second-place vote. Gibbs finished third in the voting and his tag-team partner, David Montgomery, was fourth.

The Packers are betting on Jacobs having a bounce-back season. After rushing for an NFL-high 1,653 yards with 12 touchdowns and a 4.9-yard average in 17 games in 2022, Jacobs rushed for 805 yards with six touchdowns and a 3.5-yard average in 13 games in 2023.

It wasn’t just those baseline numbers. Jacobs not only wasn’t as productive as the year before. He wasn’t as good as Jones, who upon being released by the Packers joined the rival Minnesota Vikings. According to Pro Football Focus:

- Jacobs went from 90 missed tackles in 2022 to 28 in 2023. In 90 fewer carries, Jones forced 26 missed tackles.

- On a per-carry basis, Jacobs went from 3.78 rushes per missed tackle in 2022 to 8.32 in 2023. Jones in 2023 averaged 5.50 carries per missed tackle.

- Jacobs went from 3.40 yards after contact in 2022 to 2.35 in 2023. Jones averaged 3.16 yards after contact – his fifth consecutive season of better than 3.0.

- Jacobs produced 41 10-yard runs in 2022 to nine in 2023. Jones had 15 in, as mentioned before, 90 fewer carries.

- Of 35 backs with 140-plus carries in 2022, Jacobs was second in rushing success rate at 57.4 percent. In 2023, he was 28th out of 38 backs at 45.9 percent. Jones was first in 2023 at 62.0 percent.

However, the Packers are offering stability while Jacobs dealt with disarray while playing under the franchise tag in Las Vegas.

Last offseason, the Raiders replaced quarterback Derek Carr with veteran Jimmy Garoppolo and rookie fourth-round pick Aidan O’Connell. The Raiders’ inability to throw the football meant extra eyeballs were on Jacobs. Next, at midseason, the Raiders fired coach Josh McDaniels.

“Obviously as a team, with the contract stuff and all of that coming in, it was a little different,” Jacobs said. “We had a lot of new moving parts. We didn’t really know who the quarterback was going to be, we didn’t really know what our identity was going to be. So, the first few games were kind of rough, and then we started to figure it out a little bit, but we couldn’t really stay consistent. And then towards the end of the year, I end up having an injury.

“It was just one of them situations where you expected a lot out of that season, and it just didn’t go that way.”

With coach Matt LaFleur and quarterback Jordan Love, Jacobs views this as an opportunity to re-establish himself as one of the top running backs in the NFL. He’s also eager to taste playoff success.

As a runner, his powerful running style should be a good fit for winter football. With a pair of 50-catch seasons, he also should be a good fit in the passing game.

“I think he’s a fit in any offense,” LaFleur said. “His running style, he runs extremely hard. He’s really tough to take down. He’s got great hands out of the backfield. I think anytime, at least the way we evaluate these runners, you almost have to catch the ball out of the backfield now. He’s great in pass protection. He’s a great teammate, great leader. I’ve enjoyed getting to know him, and so I think there’s a lot of great things he brings to our football team.”

In Las Vegas, then-interim coach Antonio Pierce called Jacobs the “heartbeat” of the team. That was the same word used by Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst to describe Jones.

Jacobs, who turned 26 in February, is considerably younger than Jones, who will turn 30 in December. Will that matter? Jacobs has 53 more touches in five NFL seasons than Jones does in seven.

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