Tuesday in Henderson, the much anticipated duo of Kenyan Drake and Josh Jacobs — aka Drake & Josh — took the field together for the first time as Raiders.
Their entire football careers have been like two ships passing in the night. The two former Crimson Tide running backs never shared a backfield at Alabama. Drake left for the NFL in 2016 when Jacobs arrived.
Over the past two seasons since the Raiders made Jacobs the 24th overall pick in the 2019 draft, Drake has played for the Dolphins and Cardinals.
Drake signed by the Raiders back in March and attended OTA practices over the past month, but Jacobs opted to work out away from the facility. Now with the start of mandatory minicamp, Jacobs arrived and took the field alongside Drake for the first glimpse of what the Raiders hope is a dynamic duo this season.
“They do complement each other great,” said Derek Carr of his backfield mates. “Kenyan is not just a route-running kind of running back. He’s had 900-some-yard seasons. The guy’s a good football player. When you have two backs like that, you don’t have to kill Josh. Josh doesn’t have to…he can be fresh every snap. Can you imagine that? Having to tackle that guy fresh every single time? Oh, here comes Drake, here comes Jalen Richard, here comes Alec Ingold.”
Though this will be their first time together as teammates, the two backs know each other quite well.
“I was fighting for the dude to get him over here when I found out that Book(Devontae Booker) was leaving,” Josh Jacobs said of Drake. “I’ve been knowing Kenyan forever, since our Alabama days, he used to come back and train with me all the time. His game speaks for itself. He’s very versatile, he can play in the slot, is very good in open space, and take the top off. He’s going to be a great addition.”
Drake has had over 1000 yards from scrimmage each of the past four seasons, with a good portion of those yards coming in the receiving game. Though, he is coming off his best season in terms of rushing yards, putting up 955 yards on the ground.
Jacobs has had over 1000 yards rushing each of his two NFL seasons. So, clearly they both bring a lot to the backfield.
“I just feel like once everything kind of gets going …you’re just going to rely on the things that you’ve kind of been adapted to grow into, and that’s being the best versions of ourselves and kind of really feeding off each other once we get in there,” said Drake. “His running style is definitely infectious, the bruising, physical style, being able to make people miss in space. And me vice versa, so I definitely feel like we will be able to complement each other, especially with everybody in that room.”
Last offseason for Jacobs was all about improving as a receiver. Now Drake comes in to step up in that area. Though you can expect both to tag team in each area. We’ll see if there’s enough touches to go around, but it should be fun to watch either way.
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