Finding This Year’s Josh Jacobs (2023 Fantasy Football)

Las Vegas Raiders RB Josh Jacobs has now been an RB1 in PPR for three consecutive seasons. He is still only 25 years old, and yet the fantasy community, namely those of us who partake in dynasty leagues, have long tried to bury him. 2022 was a banner season for the Alabama product. He returned to his rookie season efficiency, and with the added volume (393 touches), Jacobs eclipsed 2,000 scrimmage yards and scored 12 rushing touchdowns. This breakout was a stunning surprise to some. It begs the question now. Who is this year’s Josh Jacobs? If it isn’t Jacobs again, who is the RB who will go from good and satisfactory to a great league winner? I have some ideas.

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Finding This Year’s Josh Jacobs

No drumroll is needed. This season’s Josh Jacobs is Tony Pollard. Kellen Moore’s audacity was never more flippant than possessing an absolute weapon and quite literally refusing to feature him for three seasons until 2022. Even in Pollard’s first blossom campaign last year, he was still not a main cog in the passing game. This was in spite of his extensive history as a receiving weapon dating back to his days at Memphis and the team’s glaring weakness at WR throughout last season. Moore is gone. Backfield albatross Ezekiel Elliott is gone (for now). It’s high time Dallas calls it, so number 20 can “haul it.”

Widely regarded as a “scat back,” Pollard is anything but slight. He reportedly bulked up to 220 pounds last season and withstood a career-high 232 touches over 16 games without difficulty. Only a freak injury at the end of the season has some fantasy managers running scared. Don’t. Pollard is slated to be ready in plenty of time for training camp, coming off successful surgery on his fractured fibula.

Let’s examine Pollard’s contributions last season. He saw 63 more carries than the year prior and still maintained his freakish efficiency at 5.2 yards per carry and 5.9 yards per touch (5th among RBs, according to Player Profiler). Pollard was also a big play waiting to happen, with 12 touchdowns and an 8.8% breakaway run rate (4th among RBs-Player Profiler). To further drill down just how incredible he is as a receiver, Pollard was second-best among RBs in yards per reception and fourth-best in yards per route run (Player Profiler). To only come away with 39 receptions on 55 targets in 2022 was a travesty.

The RB depth chart in Dallas behind Tony Pollard is plenty uninspiring. Ronald Jones is the most decorated but was unceremoniously ushered from Tampa Bay before languishing in Kansas City last year. Rico Dowdle was preferred over Malik Davis last year before suffering an injury. Davis, you might recall, looked explosive in a timeshare with Dameon Pierce at the University of Florida and was effective in limited looks last season. Incoming rookie Deuce Vaughn is 5-foot-5 and 179 pounds. Despite an enviable college highlight reel, he will not garner a lot of volume at this level.

Pollard stands to see a significant bump in volume in 2023. Hopefully, a good portion of that increase will come through the air under new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. As it stands currently, Mike McCarthy will call the plays. A relic from a bygone era in football, McCarthy’s West Coast play-calling has been ridiculed for more than a decade for being confoundingly vanilla and predictable. At the same time, his most recent 2014 campaign saw 88 targets go to RBs. That included 55 to plodder, Eddie Lacy. Schottenheimer most recently called plays in 2020 for the Seahawks, where RBs were targeted 98 times. Although not overly inspiring, Pollard is ready to see his target share increase in 2023.

In conclusion, Tony Pollard’s reputation as an exciting Swiss Army knife of an RB will hit new heights in 2023. Injury concerns and fears of an Elliott reunion have kept Pollard’s availability in the third round of fantasy drafts. Rest assured, Dallas knows what he is capable of doing for their team. The only question will be whether they know how to properly deploy him as the matchup nightmare he is for defenses. Don’t look now, but last season’s RB6 in PPR points per game is ready to explode into the top-5 and possibly higher.