One of the most shocking moves of the offseason came from the Las Vegas Raiders. After another solid year from Josh Jacobs, the Raiders gave veteran runner Kenyan Drake $11 million guaranteed in free agency.
Drake has been highly productive over the last three seasons, totaling 3,266 yards and 27 touchdowns in 45 games. Drake is just 27-years old and is among the most explosive runners in the league.
What made this move so fascinating is the fact that Josh Jacobs is only 23 years old and has had back-to-back 1,300-yard seasons to start his career. Add on the fact the Raiders were able to get solid production out of Devontae Booker and 2020 and the move makes even less sense.
But where do Jacobs and Drake rank among the league’s best running back pairings entering the 2021 season? Well, according to Bleacher Report, pretty well. The site listed them as the No. 2 duo in the league. Here is a snippet of their thoughts on the pairing:
“In any given week, the Raiders can feed either running back the majority touches, which separates this tandem from the previous three. Keep in mind that Jacobs and Drake each eclipsed 1,091 scrimmage yards last season. With the latter’s prospective role in the passing game, they could do it again while on the same team.”
We can debate if the Raiders were wise to spend that much money on a No. 2 running back in free agency. However, we can’t debate how much fun this pairing could be this season. If Jon Gruden can find a way to correctly balance their touches, this could be a really fun backfield in 2021.
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