Raiders running back Josh Jacobs took the league by storm in his first season but got snubbed in a major way for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Josh Jacobs deserved to be NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. We could start anywhere but that’s the point that stands out coming out of the announcements from NFL Honors 2020 on Saturday night. The Raiders running back was, without question, the most impressive, productive and dynamic offensive rookie in the league in 2019.
And yet, it was Arizona Cardinals quarterback and the No. 1 overall pick from the 2019 NFL Draft, Kyler Murray, who got the hardware on Super Bowl eve. While the voters got MVP (Lamar Jackson), Coach of the Year (John Harbaugh) and even Defensive Rookie of the Year (Nick Bosa) right, they missed the mark for honoring the league’s best offensive rookie.
To be sure, this isn’t to disparage Murray’s rookie season, which was quite good. Working under Kliff Kingsbury in the head coach’s first year, the diminutive quarterback completed 64.4 percent of his passes for 3,722 yards, 20 touchdowns and only 12 picks while also rushing for 544 yards and four scores as well.
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While it’s hard to compare quarterback production to running back production, it is safe to say that Murray’s numbers were good — for a rookie. Jacobs’ rookie campaign, however, was among the better rushing seasons in the NFL, full stop.
The 24th overall pick from the 2019 draft rushed 242 times on the year for 1,150 yards and seven touchdowns, averaging a reliable and eye-popping 4.8 yards per carry while also only fumbling once. For good measure, he also caught 20 of his 27 targets for 166 yards as a pass-catcher out of the backfield. Oh, Jacobs also did that in 13 games.
If you’re going to make one argument in favor of Murray, it would be that he played in all 16 games while Jacobs had just 13 to his credit. However, Jacobs also played a game through the injury that ended his rookie season and still put up the numbers he did in the 2019 season. To me, what he was able to produce was far rarer than the effort Murray put forth.
Jacobs was also the driving force of the Raiders. And while the same can be said of Murray with the Cardinals, it should matter in that regard that Jon Gruden’s club ended up at 7-9 on the year while Arizona finished with a 5-10-1 mark on the season. If they were both the heartbeats of the offense and team, Jacobs’ pulse was a bit stronger.
Both Murray and Jacobs have bright NFL futures ahead — that much is clear. And who won Offensive Rookie of the Year won’t change the trajectory that Jacobs is on as the Raiders move to Las Vegas. At the same time though, it’s tough to see a young player not get the hardware he deserved on his mantle.