Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels spoke Monday before practice, discussing the team’s performance in the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday, the upcoming home opener, and addressed trade rumors surrounding starting RB Josh Jacobs.
“No,” head coach Josh McDaniels said when asked about Josh Jacobs trade speculation. “(Jacobs) is a guy that obviously we know what he’s done. As I said after the game, I really do believe that the backs, in any situation, they don’t really get to simulate what’s going to happen during the course of the regular season.”
“Giving him an opportunity to actually get tackled, take care of the football, and get acclimated to a new system, quite honestly.”
The Raiders’ running back room has been on the tip of everybody’s tongue since the team declined Jacobs’ fifth-year option before the 2022 NFL Draft and then proceeded to draft Georgia RB Zamir White in the fourth round. After Jacobs played 11 snaps in the Hall of Fame game against the Jaguars, speculation swirled as to whether or not the Raiders were showcasing Jacobs for a trade.
The NFL has been trending away in recent years from team investment in the running back position, and McDaniels comes from an offensive system in New England that notoriously ran a running back by committee approach for years to great success.
In addition, McDaniels is installing a heavy power run scheme, a scheme that White ran in college en route to claiming the Georgia Bulldogs’ first National Championship since 1980. Jacobs, meanwhile, is running the heavy power run scheme for the first time in his career.
“We felt like that was a good thing for all our backs that played. We have a lot of confidence in (Jacobs). He did well with his opportunities, which we hoped he would, and he did. But no, we have no desire to (trade Jacobs) at all.”
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