‘We here’: Josh Jacobs ready for ‘clean slate’ with Raiders

Josh Jacobs got a firsthand look at the business side of professional football during a contract dispute that resulted in him missing the Raiders’ offseason program and all of training camp.

The star running back also discovered that the business of football doesn’t have to get personal.

So on his first day back with the Raiders after agreeing to a one-year contract for up to $12 million, there were no hard feelings.

“I mean, (expletive), we here,” Jacobs said Wednesday in his first news conference since signing the deal. “I mean, I feel like we made it happen. So it ain’t no hard feelings.”

New contract. Same outlook.

“It’s a clean slate with me,” Jacobs said. “… No hate on each side. I understood it, but at the same time, I understood my value, too. It was just about meeting in the middle.”

Jacobs said the hardest part was not the actual contract dispute — one way or another it was all going to work out — it was not being on the field with his teammates.

“You want to grind with your guys, especially knowing there’s a lot of new guys,” Jacobs said. “You want the guys to know who you are and respect what you do. Respect your work. That was the biggest thing.”

“One of the hardest things in football to do is watch, at least for a guy like me.” Jacobs added. “So I was itching to get back.”

Much like last season, Jacobs enters this year facing an uncertain future. The Raiders did not pick up his fifth-year option going into the 2022 season, which meant he was a pending free agent at the end of the year. The same will be true this year while playing on a one-year deal.

Jacobs wasn’t fazed by those circumstances last season, responding by gaining a career-high and NFL-leading 1,653 yards.

That production didn’t lead to a satisfactory long-term contract like he had hoped for, but he did push what would have been a $7.3 million salary in the fifth-year option to potentially $12 million.

Whatever does unfold this season, he knows there is a landing spot somewhere in the NFL, whether it’s with the Raiders or elsewhere.

“Literally, you just bet on yourself. I say it all the time, but I truly believe it,” Jacobs said. “You just come in and work, you do what you’re supposed to every day and work every day, and everything will take care of itself, however it plays out.”

Jacobs said he believes an ever bigger season is possible this year.

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Jacobs said. “I feel like there was a lot that I still left on the field. I know it’s kind of hard to say with the year I had, but it was a lot I definitely left on the field.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.