After running away with the rushing title, Josh Jacobs takes home the FedEx Ground Player of the Year Award
When you lead the league in rushing, you’re often a fairly safe bet to win the FedEx Ground Player of the Year Award.
After a season in which Josh Jacobs ran away with the NFL rushing title, he was the runaway winner of the Ground Player of the Year Award.
The Award was presented at the NFL Honors Show Thursday night.
Jacobs’s 1653 yards rushing was more than 100 yards ahead of runner-up Derrick Henry. While Henry had one more TD (13) than Jacobs (12), his overall numbers were plenty to earn in the honor.
Along with his league-leading rushing numbers, Jacobs added 400 yards receiving, giving him over 2000 yards from scrimmage (2053).
It’s done. Josh Jacobs will be win the 2022 NFL rushing title.
Jacobs came into the weekend with a 160-yard lead for the rushing title, with just two players having any realistic chance of catching him. Those players were Browns RB Nick Chubb and Titans RB Derrick Henry
He added 45 yards in the first game of the weekend, which mean Chubb would need 205 yards rushing and Henry would need 224 yards.
Both of those games are now final and neither player came close to the totals they would need to surpass Jacobs. Henry had 109 yards Saturday night and Chubb just finished with 77 yards early Sunday.
That means, the final top three looks like this:
Josh Jacobs – 1653
Derrick Henry – 1538
Nick Chubb – 1525
The rest of the games will need to go final for it to become official. But with no other player within 300 yards of Jacobs’s rushing total, it’s over.
Pretty awesome especially when you consider the team didn’t pick up his fifth year option prior to the season, which means, should he not be signed to an extension, he will hit free agency in March.
Congrats to Josh Jacobs on winning the NFL rushing title.
Josh Jacobs put some cushion between him and his competitors for the NFL rushing title.
Josh Jacobs came into the Raiders’ season finale against the Chiefs with a 160-yard lead over the next guy for the NFL’s rushing title. That’s a fairly good lead, but not guaranteed, so best that he add to it some.
Jacobs didn’t have a great game. He rushed for 45 yards on 17 carries. It put his final rushing numbers at 1653 yards on the season
The only two players in the league who have even a slight chance of catching Jacobs at this point are Nick Chubb and Derrick Henry.
Here is how many yards each player would need to catch and surpass Jacobs’s rushing numbers:
Nick Chubb (1448) – 205 yards away
Derrick Henry (1429) – 224 yards away
Chubb has never rushed for over 200 yards in a game. His career-high for rushing in a single game is 176 yards.
While Henry has twice rushed for more than 224 yards in a game — 250 (2021) and 238 (2018). He did come close this season, however, rushing for 219 yards in Week eight against the Texans. So, it’s not impossible, even if unlikely.
In honor of the all-time rushing champ’s birthday, we take a look back at 10 games that defined Emmitt Smith’s Hall of Fame career.
Emmitt Smith celebrates his 51st birthday on Friday. Born in Pensacola, Florida, the son of Mary J. Smith and Emmitt James Smith Jr. attended Escambia High School. A prolific runner from an early age, Smith won a state football championship there before accepting a scholarship to the University of Florida. He played three years for the Gators and finished seventh for the Heisman Trophy as a junior before declaring for the 1990 NFL Draft and joining the Dallas Cowboys.
His record-setting career coincides with one of the most integral chapters in the franchise’s rich history, and Smith, in turn, is one of the club’s most decorated icons and beloved stars.
To commemorate Emmitt’s big day, Cowboys Wire has selected the ten games of Smith’s tenure with the team that best tell the story of No. 22.
1. October 7, 1990: Emmitt’s first 100-yard game
Emmitt Smith’s career as a Cowboy got a little stuck coming out of the gate. In Week 1 of 1990, the rookie logged exactly two yards on two carries in a home win over the San Diego Chargers. A week later, 11 yards on six attempts. Smith’s frustration on the sidelines was evident.
But then again, the Cowboys hadn’t even really wanted Smith to begin with. In April’s draft, Dallas had been eyeing Baylor linebacker James Francis. The Bengals got him instead. Their Plan B was Houston linebacker Lamar Lathon. The front office tried to do a deal with the Oilers to move up for him, but Houston declined… and took Lathon for themselves. The Cowboys settled for the running back from Florida they thought was too small and too slow to truly be an effective pro rusher.
But Smith knew he’d be a superstar; the famed to-do list he once wrote announcing his goal of eventually being the all-time rushing champ was proof. And one by one, he was convincing his new Dallas teammates, too.
Offensive guard Crawford Ker had been Smith’s roommate in the early days.
“I told everyone that I was sharing a room with the man who would make Cowboy fans forget about Tony Dorsett,” Ker once said. “Emmitt just wanted a chance to play and show what he could do.”
Dec 30, 1990; Atlanta, GA, USA; FILE PHOTO; Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith (22) carries the ball against the Atlanta Falcons at Fulton County Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Manny Rubio-USA TODAY Sports
That chance came in Week 5 against Tampa Bay. Finally getting a clear-cut lion’s share of the carries over Tommie Agee and Alonzo Highsmith, Smith was a one-man wrecking ball. He rolled up 121 yards on 23 attempts, and while the tape of his first pro touchdown shows quintessential Emmitt, it’s a 16-yard run with three minutes left in regulation that’s worth finding on YouTube. A mix of quick jukes, off-balance jump cuts, and pure power once he hits his stride, it’s the run that gave Smith his first 100-yard outing… and gave the rest of the league a taste of what was to come.
The Cowboys’ 14-10 win that day kickstarted Smith’s rookie campaign in earnest, a season that ended with a Pro Bowl nod and Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.
