Josh Jacobs couldn't do that.
Even though the Chiefs have won the past two Super Bowls and three in a row with most of their roster still intact, Jacobs, who left the Raiders for the Packers as an NFL free agent, never thought of himself as the kind of player who could move from one side of the AFC West rivalry to the other.
“They were trying to get me to erection,” Jacobs said. He told The Athletic“But I didn't intend to go there. I feel like once you become a rival with someone, you develop a genuine hatred for that person.”
So Jacobs went to the Packers instead, replacing Aaron Jones, who signed a one-year deal with the Vikings.
After leading the NFL in rushing yards (1,653) in 2022, Las Vegas placed the franchise tag on Jacobs and he ended up playing the 2023 season on a one-year deal, but he only gained 805 yards in 13 games, averaging a career-low 3.5 yards per carry.
But when he hit free agency, he parlayed that into a four-year, $48 million contract. The Packers were building a team around franchise quarterback Jordan Love and a young group of receivers that performed well last year, so there was likely plenty of competition to find a core member of the backfield.
Jacobs, a first-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, has been on the Raiders roster against the Chiefs 10 times, but Las Vegas has won just two of those games.
In last year's Christmas game, the Raiders scored two defensive touchdowns in a seven-second span — one on a fumble recovery and the other on a Patrick Mahomes interception — and left Arrowhead Stadium with a 20-14 upset.
Jacobs missed the final four games of the season with a quadriceps injury and was unavailable for that game.
“I couldn't see myself wearing those colors,” Jacobs told The Athletic about the Chiefs, “and I didn't want to be the guy that joins the powerhouse team. I want to be the guy that beats the powerhouse teams.”
Jacobs and the Packers open the 2024 season on Sept. 6 in Brazil against the Eagles, while the Chiefs and their running backs Isaiah Pacheco and Clyde Edwards-Haley face the Ravens in Week 1.
