Josh Jacobs thought he’d be a Raider for life, but the Packers make him feel at home

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Before Josh Jacobs saw the Hawaiian barbecued chicken in the stainless-steel tray in the Packers cafeteria at Lambeau Field, he smelled it.

The savory aroma stopped him.

It smelled like lumpia — Grandma Margerita’s lumpia.

Grandma Margerita was a Filipino immigrant who lived with her son Marty Jacobs and his family in their home on the north side of Tulsa, Okla. She spoiled Josh, loving him in a way maybe no one else has. Grandma Margerita died before Josh turned 3, but she lives in a tattoo on Josh’s left hand. He said he wanted it on the left side because it’s closer to his heart.

So when the Packers’ new running back smelled that Hawaiian barbecued chicken and it reminded him of Grandma Margerita’s lumpia, it felt like home.

To Josh Jacobs, that meant more than most people could understand.

Jacobs’ new Wisconsin address will be the 15th of the 26-year-old’s life.

That doesn’t include the many motels he lived in with his father and four siblings over a two-year period. The Super 8 was OK, but the bottom of the pool was so rough it cut their feet. There was a Motel 6 across from a police station that made Marty feel safe. And then there was the Circle Inn. Marty didn’t sleep much during nights at the Circle Inn. The nightly rate was about $20; if you stayed there, you’d understand.

The 15 addresses don’t include the relatives’ homes they crashed at when there was nowhere else to go. Or the burgundy Chevy Suburban that Marty and Josh lived in for two weeks when Josh was in fourth grade. Marty and his wife were divorcing, and Marty gave up his apartment intending to move to a smaller one. Then shortly before he was supposed to move in, the lease fell through. His SUV was the only option, even though Marty spent those nights with one eye open and a cocked gun on his lap.

Eventually, Marty was given custody of Josh and his four siblings — one of whom was his ex-wife’s son from a previous relationship. As a parent, he had no help. That was particularly problematic after Marty was injured on the job. Marty gave love and structure to his children, but accounts payable almost always exceeded accounts receivable. For Josh, sometimes that meant holes in the soles of his shoes. It meant everything he owned fit in his backpack. It meant many meals of white rice and ramen noodles. It meant doing laundry by hand because the laundromat was not in the budget.

Their lives stabilized when Josh was in eighth grade and Marty had enough money for a house. At McLain High School in Tulsa, Josh scored 56 career touchdowns and averaged 15.1 yards per carry as a senior, which earned him a scholarship to Alabama.

Josh Jacobs, his father, Marty, and his four siblings dealt with many hardships before Josh made it to the NFL with the Raiders. (Courtesy of Marty Jacobs)

In Tuscaloosa, he didn’t sleep well on a bed for a while because he never had one before — he was always on the floor. He was not a dominant college player but showed dominant skills while playing in three national championship games and winning one.

The Raiders made him the first running back selected in the 2019 draft, taking him with the 24th pick. He clicked with owner Mark Davis and coach Jon Gruden and thought he would never play for another team. In his first season, he rushed for 1,150 yards and was named Offensive Rookie of the Year by the Pro Football Writers of America.

Over the next two seasons, his production dipped slightly. Before Jacobs’ fourth year, the Raiders told him they would not pick up the fifth-year option on his contract. He felt insulted, and even more so when he was told to play in the Hall of Fame Game in the preseason while the team’s other offensive stars were given the night off.

Intent on proving himself that year, Jacobs led the league with 1,653 rushing yards and was named first-team All-Pro. A substantial contract offer surely was coming, he thought. Instead, in early 2023, the Raiders used the franchise tag on him. Rather than sign the tag and play the season for $10.1 million, Jacobs skipped most of training camp and asked for a trade. He said he planned to sit out the first 12 games of the year and return for the last six so it would be a credited season in NFL accounting. Then, in late August, he accepted a one-year deal worth $11.8 million with another $200,000 in potential incentives.

But the relationship had turned.

“Trust was missing then,” he said. “I wasn’t really mentally there, not happy to be there. Obviously, I loved my teammates so I was going to give everything I had for them, but I felt like I had been slapped in my face.”

After missing all of camp and preseason, Jacobs started slowly. He sat out the last four games of the season with a quad injury and had the least productive season of his career.

Early last offseason, Jacobs felt a cold shoulder from the Raiders. Others, meanwhile, offered warm embraces. Among the teams that told his agent they were interested in signing him were the Bears, Broncos, Cardinals, Dolphins, Giants, Packers and Texans. A most beguiling possibility was the Chiefs.

“They were trying to get me hard,” he said. “But there was no way I was going there. I feel like once you are rivals with somebody, you have a genuine hate for them. I couldn’t see myself in that color. And besides, I never wanted to be the guy that joined the dominant team. I want to be the guy that beats the dominant team.”

Jacobs says the Giants came on strong with an offer between $3 million and $4 million more than he eventually accepted. But a league source said the Giants never made an offer to Jacobs.

When the Packers offered $48 million over four years, he was intrigued, but he still pictured himself as a Raider for life. In his mind, his first team wasn’t his employer as much as his home. So he gave the Raiders an opportunity to match. When they said no, he told them he would accept less than the Packers offered if they included incentives. The Raiders turned him down.

“I really didn’t want to up and move,” he said. “But I could tell that s— was over with.”

And there was much to be said for the Packers. Start here — they are not the Raiders, who moved from Oakland to Las Vegas after Jacobs’ rookie year and have moved four times in 39 years. The Packers are the most stable, secure franchise in the NFL. Jacobs played for five coaches in five seasons with the Raiders. Over the same period, the Packers have had one coach and have had only four coaches in the last 24 years.

“When you look back on Josh’s life, God kind of groomed him to deal with the Raiders,” Marty said. “But now I’m excited to see how well he can do with stability.”

The Packers knew who their quarterback would be, and it’s a quarterback Jacobs has much respect for. Before the Raiders played the Packers last season, players were shown an overview tape of the Packers. The room buzzed about Jordan Love.

“I’m watching this dude make throws and some of them reminded me of Patrick Mahomes,” he said. “Or Justin Herbert, like 70 yards on a thread. Either you got that or you don’t.”

The Raiders don’t have Love or anything close, and Jacobs believes that means opponents will be less focused on him than they would have been had he remained in Las Vegas. If defenses load the box against the Packers, Love will likely throw it. And Jacobs may be on the receiving end of more passes than he ever has been. In training camp, he ran many routes, including some from a split-out position.

“I think he’s been kind of underutilized as a route runner,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said of Jacobs, who has yet to score an NFL receiving touchdown. “Not to throw shade at anybody else, but I just think there’s more for him potentially in the passing game.”

Since Jacobs has been in the league, he has been about quantity as well as quality, with more rushing attempts than any player except Derrick Henry. LaFleur has preferred to split carries among multiple backs, but he said he’s open-minded about giving Jacobs a larger percentage of the work.

“If a guy is rolling, you want to give him the ball more,” LaFleur said. “I’d say we’re pretty flexible.”

Josh Jacobs couldn’t see himself in Chiefs colors, but he’s feeling good in green and gold. (Ken Blaze / USA Today)

Jacobs was drawn to LaFleur’s concept of offense, and he liked the composition of his locker room. Only four Packers have been in the NFL longer than he has.

“A lot of guys aren’t on their second contract,” Jacobs said. “And that excited me because I know how players play when they’re hungry and want to get the contract to set up their family for life.”

The idea is to lead like one of the old guys and run like one of the young ones. In a training camp practice, Jacobs said Packers GPS tracked him running at 21.7 miles per hour — his fastest speed ever. Only five players ran faster in NFL games last season, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

He attributes the turbo charge partially to a change in how he fueled himself. In the offseason, Jacobs fasted for one week every month, eating nothing but fruit. He did it to become his best version spiritually as well as physically. Instead of focusing on hunger, he redirected his thoughts to gratitude and prayers for personal peace.

His new home is a good place for an uncomplicated approach.

“There’s not a lot to do here,” he said. “It forces everybody on the team to be tight-knit and kick it with each other. It all takes you back to football.”

Whatever Green Bay doesn’t have, Jacobs can afford to import. He has income from investments as well as his employer. Jacobs counts two billionaires as friends and advisers and was an early investor in SpaceX, which he said doubled in value.

So he brings in his personal chef from Las Vegas every other week. His hair lady comes from Los Angeles as needed. He could have shipped his six cars — including a Mercedes Brabus G-Wagon, a Porsche 911 Turbo S and a Porsche GT3 RS — but decided against it. Instead, he went shopping for a more appropriate vehicle for northern Wisconsin — a truck.

His cars, he can do without. His jersey number, he could not.

Jacobs started wearing No. 8 in third grade when he first played football. He wore it for 15 years until he left Alabama. When he came into the league, the NFL didn’t allow running backs to wear single-digit numbers so he settled for 28. But he wore a T-shirt under his jersey with the No. 8 and a diamond pendant with the No. 8. He also had the number tattooed on his arm.

He finally got his 8 back last year in his final season with the Raiders. Then upon changing teams, Jacobs learned quarterback Sean Clifford wore No. 8 last year with the Packers. Jacobs said the Packers gave him No. 8, but he didn’t feel right about taking Clifford’s number so he told him he would make it worth it to him. All Clifford asked, Jacobs said, is that he bought all his family members jerseys with his new No. 6 to replace their old No. 8s. Jacobs said he gave Clifford, who since has been cut, much more than the cost of new jerseys for his family but didn’t want to reveal the amount.

“When I told my financial adviser, he said, ‘You are giving him how much?’” Jacobs said.

For Jacobs, his number was worth a big number. A week before training camp, he had a No. 8 tattooed on his kneecap.

“I’m just attached to it,” he said. “It reminds me of the starting point of where I came from.”

It reminds him of home.

Home for Jacobs can be his house in Oklahoma. Or it could be the house he owns in Las Vegas. Or the one in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Home can be the Oklahoma house he bought for Marty four years ago. It could be his new place in Green Bay. Or the place where the smell of Grandma Margerita’s lumpia gave him comfort.

Many years of searching have led to the realization that home isn’t about the two-by-fours and drywall. It’s about connections.

“Back then, my dad and siblings always made it feel like home, wherever we were,” he said. “The thing I learned is that it’s not so much about being anchored as it is the people around you being anchored in you.”

At Lambeau Field, Jacobs has walked to the wall that separates the end zone from the stands. He’s measured it in his mind, thinking about how high he will need to elevate for a Lambeau Leap after scoring a touchdown. And he has envisioned himself in the middle of a green-and-gold swarm of joyous, raucous fans losing their cheeseheads, spilling their Spotted Cows and holding him like they’ll never let him go.

There, Josh Jacobs finally may be home.

(Top photo: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)