Las Vegas Raiders: Josh Jacobs snubbed of OROY

Josh Jacobs only has one year under his belt in the NFL, but in doing so he took the league by storm as a potential offensive rookie of the year candidate.

The NFL Honors annual event took place Saturday night and after all the votes were tallied up, Josh Jacobs was beaten out by Cardinals’ quarterback Kyler Murray. Arizona’s former number one overall pick posted a respectable rookie campaign, but Jacobs was the glue to the Oakland offense and in large part was more deserving of the award for many reasons.

Murray won the award with 26.5 votes compared to13 votes that went to Jacobs. The Raiders rookie phenomenon was awarded the Professional Football Writers of America’s offensive rookie of the year on January 14th, but he was unable to take home the hardware this time around by the 50 AP selectors.

Jacobs rushed for 1,150 yards to pair with his seven touchdowns on 242 carries. From a pass-catching standpoint, he hauled in 20 passes for 166 receiving yards.

The 24th overall pick from the 2019 draft still remained among one of the premier rushers in the NFL, despite a shoulder injury that he suffered in week six against the Green Bay Packers. Jacobs continued to play through the injury without tarnishing much of his production but eventually missed three games late in the year.

In all respect to Murray’s rookie season, Jacobs set numerous Raiders rookie records this year. The former Alabama running back came into Oakland and shattered Marcus Allen’s record for most rushing yards in a rookie season, and did so during week nine.

This is a legitimate case of recency bias taking place, as Murray finished the year playing all 16 games, but when you look at the big picture perspective, Jacobs was much more dynamic and deserving of this honor.