If Josh Jacobs played any position other than the one he plays, he would've had a case this offseason to become that position's highest-paid player in the NFL. He led the league in rushing yards in 2022, a brilliant retort to the Las Vegas Raiders' decision to decline his (roughly $8 million) 2023 option in May 2022. You'd think a player who performed at that level in a contract year would get his reward.
But Jacobs plays running back, and to this point his only "reward" for his 2022 performance is a $10.09 million franchise tag for 2023.
Jacobs and the New York Giants' Saquon Barkley are front and center in the NFL news cycle for the next 1½ weeks. July 17 is the deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign long-term deals with their teams. If they don't sign by then, Jacobs and Barkley can't discuss long-term extensions with the Raiders and Giants, respectively, until after the 2023 regular season ends. Normally, teams' negotiations with franchise-tagged players pick up again in the days before that July deadline, and we expect that to happen with Jacobs and Barkley. But restarting talks does not guarantee reaching a deal, and it's entirely possible Jacobs and Barkley will have to decide whether they're willing to accept the one-year franchise tender or sit out training camp and regular-season games in protest.
Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard is also franchised, but unlike Jacobs and Barkley, he has signed his franchise tender and seems OK with playing out the season at that number. Pollard is coming off a major season-ending injury and doesn't have the same track record that Jacobs and Barkley do as their teams' No. 1 backs. We aren't lumping him in with the other two here.
The Raiders and Giants can't fine Jacobs and Barkley for missing camp if they don't sign their franchise tenders, so if they don't get new deals by the July 17 deadline, you certainly shouldn't expect to see them for the start of camp in a few weeks. Sitting out the season is the threat they can make for leverage purposes, but the fact is it wouldn't do them very much good -- they'd simply be back in the same position a year from now.
What happens next? We called around the league to executives and agents to get a sense of what kind of solution there might be to this problem. We came up with several possibilities, ranging from reasonable to nuclear, and we laid them out here to give you some idea of how these situations might (or might not) be resolved. And then we suggested the most likely outcome for each of the talented running backs.
