Josh Jacobs Is Active for the First Time in 2026: What His Return Means for the League’s Worst Run Game
Green Bay activated Josh Jacobs from the Commissioner’s Exempt List on Saturday. He will make his 2026 debut Sunday against Detroit, six games into a season he has spent entirely on paid leave.
The Packers are 4-2 without him and have the worst running game in football. Those two facts together explain why Sunday matters.
59.8 Yards a Game
Green Bay ranks last in the NFL in rushing, at 59.8 yards per game. For a team that wants to control games on the ground, sitting at 4-2 in spite of that number says more about the rest of the roster than about the plan.
Jacobs led the Packers in rushing in both 2024 and 2025. Across those two seasons he ran for 2,258 yards, eighth most in the league, and tied for fourth with 28 rushing touchdowns. He was not a rotation piece. He was the identity of the offense.
Detroit will be ready. The Lions activated safety Brian Branch off the physically unable to perform list on Saturday and got center Cade Mays back from injured reserve.
Why He Missed Six Games
Jacobs was arrested earlier this year on misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor destruction of property charges stemming from a May 23 incident involving a woman at his home near Green Bay. He pleaded no contest on Sept. 10, was convicted of battery and fined $1,000, and reached a deferred judgment agreement on the property damage charge.
The Commissioner’s Exempt List is not a suspension. A player on it is paid and cannot practice or play, and the league uses it while deciding what to do. Jacobs spent the first six games there. The NFL removed him from the list on Monday, and the Packers added him to the active roster on Saturday.
The Criminal Case Is Over. The League’s Review Is Not.
This is the part that tends to get lost in a transaction note. The criminal matter is resolved, but the NFL’s investigation into potential violations of the personal conduct policy remains open, and no discipline has been announced.
If a suspension does come, it could match or exceed the six games Jacobs has already missed, and that exempt-list time would be credited against it. Green Bay could get him back Sunday, use him for some stretch of the season, and lose him again on the league’s schedule rather than its own.
Planning a backfield around that is close to impossible, and it is the practical cost of how this list works.
What to Watch Sunday
Jacobs has not played since last season. Six weeks on paid leave is not six weeks of injury rehab, so health is not really the question here. Timing is, and so is contact speed, and he will learn about both in the first quarter.
Green Bay also signed receiver Coleman Owen off the practice squad and activated defensive tackle Jordon Riley from the physically unable to perform list.
At 4-2 the Packers have survived the league’s worst run game. Getting back the player who was supposed to make that a strength should settle a great deal, with the caveat that a league ruling is still hanging over all of it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
