Nobody in Green Bay has been handed a reason to take carries off Jacobs. The Packers didn't draft or sign a back capable of unseating him, and everything behind him on the depth chart is camp filler until proven otherwise. That's a vote of confidence in the player, but it's also just math: this offense runs through him because it never built an alternative.
Watch him and the appeal is obvious. Jacobs doesn't make you miss so much as make you pay for trying to stop him, finishing runs through arm tackles and turning busted blocks into positive gains through pure contact balance. He led backs in broken tackles a year ago and does his best work after first contact, not before it, which is why LaFleur keeps trusting him with the ball inside the 5 even when the yardage upfield gets ugly.
The honest problem is that a running style built on absorbing hits doesn't scale forever, and the numbers already show wear: his yardage dropped hard from his Pro Bowl debut in Green Bay, even as his touchdown total held up. That's the red flag scouts like ESPN's Mike Clay are pointing at heading into this season — a back whose scoring rate outran his per-carry production, propped up by a soft closing stretch that won't repeat. Take away a few short-yardage scores and this profile looks a lot more ordinary.
The clearest stylistic match at the position is Kyren Williams, another back who wins on toughness and goal-line trust rather than long speed, and who's just as touchdown-dependent for his value. Williams gets there against defenses stacked to stop the run in a offense that leans on him more than anyone; Jacobs gets there in an offense with real receivers drawing safeties out of the box. Given the choice, take the back playing behind the better passing game — Jacobs earns his touchdowns against lighter fronts, and that matters more than people give it credit for.
