The Green Bay Packers got the Friday afternoon news dump treatment this week, with a big breaking news item coming on the heels of the Milwaukee Brewers’ clinching win in the NLCS on Thursday night.
According to veteran NFL reporter Tom Pelissero, running back Josh Jacobs will be removed from the Commissioner’s Exempt list on Monday. The move will make him eligible to play in the Packers’ week 7 game against the Detroit Lions.
The move will effectively leave Jacobs as having served a six-game suspension on the list while his legal case worked its way through the court system. After initially being charged with five charges related to domestic abuse (including one felony charge), Jacobs eventually pled no contest to two misdemeanor charges: battery and criminal damage to property.
The reason for his impending removal from the exempt list is likely related to a recent filing by both Jacobs and the victim in the case, his former girlfriend. The victim had previously filed suit to block a surveillance video of the incident from being released to the public, and on Thursday,Jacobs joined that lawsuit in support of the request to seal the evidence permanently sealed.
With the NFL unlikely to get access to the video and Jacobs having already served what is effectively a six-week suspension, the league evidently felt that it had no further justification to keep Jacobs from playing.
In Jacobs’ absence, the Packers’ run game has sputtered with MarShawn Lloyd, Kaleb Johnson, Chris Brooks, and Pierre Strong, Jr. running the football. The Packers as an organization have generally spoken in support of Jacobs, though whether Jacobs would return to the lineup immediately in Week 7 is unclear as players on the Exempt list are barred from practicing with the team. In all likelihood, he would need at least another week of ramping up before being ready for game action, which could delay his season debut until Week 8 (Thursday Night Football vs. Carolina) or Week 9 (Sunday at New England).
