Four games into the season, Josh Jacobs has yet to take a snap. The NFL put him on the Commissioner’s Exempt List on Aug. 30, and the number hanging over him ever since came from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler on Sept. 16: a suspension of four to six games looks like the range, based on people he spoke to around the league. The Packers have gone 2 and 2 without him, and the running back room has spent a month auditioning, which is why we argued after the Jets game that the Packers should start Kaleb Johnson at running back.
For fantasy managers, that range is a quarter to a third of a 17 game season, on top of the four games already gone. Anyone still holding Jacobs on a bench spot, or eyeing a buy low trade, should check where he sits in the current 2026 fantasy football rankings before deciding what he is worth this week, because his value now depends almost entirely on a decision nobody outside the league office can predict.
What a four or six game ban actually costs
Start with what Jacobs was last year. In 15 games in 2025 he carried 234 times for 929 yards and 13 rushing touchdowns, added 36 catches for 282 yards, and averaged 15.8 PPR points per game, ninth among running backs. A year earlier he ran for 1,329 yards. He was a bell cow, and bell cows win fantasy weeks on volume and goal line work more than on efficiency.
The calendar is the problem. Green Bay’s bye falls in Week 11. If the league hands down six games and gives no credit for the time already spent on the exempt list, Jacobs misses Weeks 5 through 10 and returns in Week 12, leaving seven regular season games. A four game ban under the same terms brings him back in Week 9 with nine games left. If the league counts the month he has already sat, the picture flips, and a four game penalty could be considered served.
Most fantasy leagues stage their playoffs across Weeks 15 to 17. Under every one of those scenarios, Jacobs is back by then. That is the case for holding him. The case against is that a roster spot spent on a zero for two more months can cost a playoff berth before he ever returns.
Who gets the carries until then
Nobody has grabbed the job, and that matters for anyone streaming a Packers back. MarShawn Lloyd opened the season as the starter and carried 13 times for 37 yards in the Week 1 loss at Minnesota. Kaleb Johnson, acquired from Pittsburgh on Aug. 30 for a 2028 sixth round pick, did not get a single carry that day. He then led the team with eight carries for 32 yards in the overtime win over the Jets.
Sunday’s 17 to 14 win in Tampa looked like more of the same. Johnson again led the backfield with eight carries for 42 yards, including a 31 yard burst in the third quarter that set up Tucker Kraft’s touchdown. He also lost a fumble inside the 5 yard line, his second as a Packer. Lloyd managed only 13 yards on seven attempts, yet he still played 30 snaps to Johnson’s 15. Chris Brooks chipped in four runs for 30 yards on 10 snaps.
That is a committee in the truest sense, which makes every Packers back hard to trust in a standard lineup. Johnson shows the most burst while Lloyd keeps getting the snaps, and Brooks holds onto passing down work because LaFleur trusts his pass protection. Until Matt LaFleur picks one, none of them is more than a flex in a deep league.
How to play it this week
If you drafted Jacobs as an RB1, stop treating him like one and start treating him like a stash. Keep him if your bench can absorb a dead spot through October. If your team is 1 and 3 and needs points now, he is a reasonable trade chip to a contender with roster room, since the manager across the table is buying a likely playoff starter at a discount.
Do not trade him for nothing, though. The worst outcome is selling at the bottom days before the league announces a shorter penalty than expected. A ruling could land at any point now that the league is reviewing the case under its personal conduct policy, and his price will jump the moment it does.
For the Packers backs, Johnson is the add if he is still on your waiver wire. He led the team in carries against both the Jets and the Bucs, and a cleaner day with the ball would make him a starter in plenty of leagues.
Chicago comes to Lambeau on Sunday at 3:25 p.m. Central, and the carry split in that game will say more than any depth chart. Whatever happens, Jacobs remains the most important fantasy decision on this roster. The rest of Green Bay’s backfield is just keeping the seat warm until the league makes its call.
