Packer Central

Packers’ Josh Jacobs Reaches 1,000 Rushing Yards vs. Lions

In a career-rebirth season, Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs entered Thursday’s game against the Detroit Lions needing 13 yards to record the fourth 1,000-yard season of his career.

Bill Huber

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs (8) runs with the ball against the Detroit Lions.
Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs (8) runs with the ball against the Detroit Lions. / David Reginek-Imagn Images
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DETROIT – In his debut season for the Green Bay Packers, running back Josh Jacobs hit the 1,000-yard milestone during Thursday’s game against the Detroit Lions

Jacobs entered the game ranked third in the NFL with 987 rushing yards. He got to exactly 1,000 on the final play of the first quarter with a typical Jacobs run in which he plowed forward for several yards after initial contact.

There would be no basking in the glory of hitting a significant milestone.

“Nah, man, I care more about the wins. The accolades is whatever,” Jacobs said this week.

Nonetheless, it’s been a career-rebirth season for Jacobs in which he’s re-established himself as a top back in the NFL.

“I ain’t going to lie to you, every week, I feel better and better about the decision,” Jacobs said after scoring three touchdowns against the 49ers. “So, for me, I’m happy, man. Even through the adversity and the rough times, I never feel like a certain type of way. I come in the building every day, I feel happy, and I try to give everything I have.”

A first-round pick by the Raiders in 2019, he rushed for 1,150 yards as a rookie and 1,065 yards in 2020, his first Pro Bowl season. In 2022, he led the NFL with 1,653 rushing yards and 97.2 rushing yards per game en route to being first-team All-Pro.

Last year, though, Jacobs’ production fell off a cliff. Here’s the comparison from Sports Info Solutions.

Rushing yards: 1,653 in 2022. 805 in 2023.

Yards per carry: 4.9 in 2022. 3.5 in 2023.

Rushing touchdowns: 12 in 2022. 6 in 2023.

Percentage of carries for a first down: 27.4 in 2022. 14.6 in 2023.

Yards after contact: 1,103 in 2022. 544 in 2023.

Yards after contact per carry: 3.2 in 2022. 2.3 in 2023.

Broken/missed tackles: 79 in 2022. 28 in 2023.

Broken-tackle percentage: 23.2 in 2022. 12.0 in 2023.

It was a stunning drop in production, which is why he was available in free agency. Liking what his powerful running style could mean in late-season football games like Thursday’s and believing last year’s drop in production was a byproduct of circumstance and not the wear and tear from five years of heavy usage with the Raiders, the Packers opted to sign the durable Jacobs and release the explosive Aaron Jones at the start of free agency.

Jacobs has returned to vintage form in powering the Packers’ strong start. The comparison between his 233 carries in 13 games in 2023 and his 221 carries in 12 games in 2024:

Rushing yards: 805 in 2023. 987 in 2024.

Yards per carry: 3.5 in 2023. 4.5 in 2024.

Rushing touchdowns: 6 in 2023. 8 in 2024.

Percentage of carries for a first down: 14.6 in 2023. 22.6 in 2024.

Yards after contact: 544 in 2023. 675 in 2024.

Yards after contact per carry: 2.3 in 2023. 3.1 in 2024.

Broken/missed tackles: 28 in 2023. 47 in 2024.

Broken-tackle percentage: 12.0 in 2023. 21.3 in 2024.

According to SIS, 32 backs have at least 100 carries entering Week 14. Jacobs is sixth in yards after contact per carry and fifth in percentage of carries in which he’s forced a missed tackle.

“He’s a big back. You can tell people really aren’t trying to hit him,” guard Elgton Jenkins said. “They know that on contact, he’ll run them over. Big, fast, powerful. A lot of power.”

With another four games to go after Thursday in Detroit, 1,000 yards might be just a blip on the radar. He entered the game averaging 82.3 rushing yards per game, putting him on pace for 1,398 yards.

That would trail only Ahman Green’s 1,883 yards in 16 games in 2003, Jim Taylor’s 1,474 yards in 14 games during his MVP season of 1962 and Dorsey Levens’ 1,435 yards in 16 games in 1997.

Is this the kind of season he envisioned when he decided to join the Packers?

“I say it all of the time, I came here because I’d seen them winning,” Jacobs said after the win over the 49ers. “And I haven’t won a lot in my career, and that was a big thing for me when I’m making a decision.

“But not only that, man, being around these guys and seeing how hungry they are, seeing how much of pros they are on a day-to-day basis and how much it means to them, man, it makes me want to play harder, it makes me want to give everything I have.”

It’s the 27th 1,000-yard season in franchise history. Jones had three, most recently his career-high 1,121 yards in 2022. He is the 11th player to hit that mark.

Fueled by Jacobs, the Packers entered the week with six games of 160-plus rushing yards. Only the Eagles (with Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts with eight games) and Ravens (with Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson with eight) had more.

Last week, Jacobs became the fourth player since 2000 with 800-plus rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns in each of his first six career seasons. The others: Ezekiel Elliott, Adrian Peterson and Pro Football Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson.

“Big, powerful, hard to tackle, run after contact,” Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn told reporters this week. “When you have a running back of that nature, it changes the mindset of the O-line. So now the O-line knows that we have this physical runner, so now that turns into a more physical offensive line.

“All they have to do is show him, give him a little crease, and they know that he’s going to make 3 yards out of nothing. Most of those three yards end up getting to be 6 and 7 yards and he’s going to break a tackle. So, I think he fits that scheme perfectly and he’s doing a hell of a job as far as complementing the whole offense, which allows now the vertical passing game to show up.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.