Josh Jacobs will come off the NFL Commissioner Exempt List on Monday, clearing the Green Bay Packers running back to play again in Green Bay’s Week 7 game on Oct. 25 at Detroit after missing six games. The move changes his roster status now, even as his legal and league matters remain unsettled.
For the Packers, that means Jacobs can be back on the field just in time for a game that has already become the next marker in his season. The NFL notified him that he will be removed from the list Monday, and his eligibility returns with it.
The timing matters because Jacobs has been out since Aug. 30, when he was placed on the Commissioner Exempt List after pending misdemeanor charges of battery and criminal damage to property stemming from a physical altercation in May. The NFL opened its review under the Personal Conduct Policy after his arrest following that incident, and the league’s review is still ongoing.
That review is not over simply because he is eligible to play again. The NFL can still suspend Jacobs and is expected to do so, and each game he spent on the commissioner’s exempt list will count toward any suspension. What the league has not said is how long that punishment would be or exactly when it would begin.
Jacobs pleaded no contest in September, and both he and the victim have filed legal documents seeking to prevent video of the altercation from becoming public. For now, the immediate change is clear: the Packers regain one of their top players for the next Green Bay Packers games window, while the final word from the NFL remains out of reach.
