Raiders ready to turn Josh Jacobs into an all-around fantasy RB1

Josh Jacobs has not done much as a pass catcher thus far, but there are plans to change that and turn him into a legit RB1 for his fantasy owners.

After he dealt with an illness all week, Oakland Raiders running back Josh Jacobs only played 25 snaps in Week 3 against the Minnesota Vikings as he finished with 10 carries for 44 yards. The rookie is still averaging 5.1 yards per carry this season though (45 carries for 228 yards).

Entering Week 4, Jacobs is RB12 in standard fantasy scoring. He’s only been targeted three times as a pass catcher thus far though, with his one catch going for 28 yards back in Week 1. But two of those three targets came last Sunday, and that may be the start of a trend.

Via Jimmy Durkin of The Athletic (subscription required), Raiders’ head coach Jon Gruden pointed to the need to get more from Jacobs as a receiver. As a group, Raiders running backs have combined for just eight receptions for 70 yards this season.

"Yeah, we’re trying,” “We definitely do want to get Josh to be a big part of the passing game. No doubt. We certainly do. We’d like to get more out of Jalen Richard as well. All of our backs. We take a lot of pride in using our backs in the passing game. You are right, though, 100 percent. We’ve got to get more out of Josh as a receiver."

Over his three seasons at Alabama, Jacobs averaged 11.9 yards per catch with five receiving touchdowns. So he’s got some chops as a pass catcher. The Raiders’ offensive staff has to find a way to accentuate that, and create some easy completions for Derek Carr. Naturally then, Jacobs’ fantasy stock would rise in PPR scoring (currently RB18 in full-point PPR).

Jacobs has zero red zone carries in Week 3, as a nod to a limited snap count and the Raiders not getting much going offensively. But he is still toward the top of the league in that category and he’s among the leaders in any broken tackle or after contact metric.

On 15 touches per game, mostly carries, Jacobs is already an RB1 for his standard league fantasy owners. More targets puts 20 touches per game in play, and a push into RB1 territory in PPR scoring as well. If there’s any sort of buy-low window on Jacobs, the time to act is now.