Josh Jacobs is still getting paid. He can still walk into the Packers’ building for meetings, workouts, and treatment. None of that changes the fact that Green Bay built this season’s offense around a running back the league just barred from practicing or playing, with no return date attached.
The NFL placed Jacobs on the Commissioner’s Exempt List Sunday, three days after the Brown County DA formally charged him with two Class A misdemeanors, battery and criminal damage to property, connected to an alleged incident with a woman back in May. ESPN was first to report the move, and the mechanics matter here: full salary, permission to attend meetings and work out on his own, medical treatment as needed — everything except the two things a lead back actually needs to provide.
The exempt list isn’t a suspension, it just works like one. Jacobs can’t practice. He can’t play. The league has made clear it won’t wait for the legal process to finish before handing down real discipline, and his initial court appearance isn’t scheduled until November 17. Nobody can say when this ends.
None of this should register as a surprise. Gutekunst himself admitted last week that the Packers were already preparing for a suspension that technically didn’t exist yet, an odd thing to say about a player who was still practicing at the time but an honest one.
The DA’s decision to formally charge two misdemeanors instead of the original felony strangulation allegation reshuffled the legal picture without touching the football one. Jacobs is 28, two years into a four-year, $48 million contract, and now unavailable for reasons that have nothing to do with his groin.
Green Bay’s backfield plan without Jacobs is not one anyone drew up on purpose. MarShawn Lloyd, a 2024 third-round pick, moves to the front of the line. Chris Brooks offers veteran steadiness and little upside. Kaleb Johnson, a 2025 third-rounder the Packers traded for the same weekend the league cut nearly 1,200 players, is auditioning for real snaps three days after unpacking his locker — a group CBS Sports framed as the whole depth chart Green Bay has left.
I read Gutekunst’s “preparing for a suspension” line three times this week and it still sounds like a general manager admitting he never built a real Plan B.
The move was first reported Sunday evening:
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/2094128845238509606
Jacobs’ attorneys are calling the exempt-list placement “an administrative procedure,” not a final determination, and technically they’re right. The Packers still don’t have their starting running back, may not have him for weeks, and built an offense that assumed otherwise.
Green Bay built a season around a back who may never play it.
