NFL Betting: 5 Offensive Rookie of the Year Targets

Josh Jacobs, Running Back, Oakland Raiders

FanDuel Sportsbook Odds: +600

In the last ten years, four running backs have won the Offensive Rookie of the Year award, most recently last season when New York Giants first-year back Saquon Barkley took the honors.

Given the relative (and I stress the word, relative) ease with which running backs are able to become impact players, it is not exactly shocking that this would be the case. With this in mind, the first running back taken in this year's draft, Josh Jacobs, should be able to stake a claim for this premier first-year honor.

His odds have already shifted from +1200 to +600 in a matter of days.

Despite never earning a workhorse role in college whilst a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Jacobs impressed evaluators enough that he was a consensus best back in this year's draft class, a status that saw him drafted by the Oakland Raiders (despite their fears that the Eagles had traded up ahead of them to take Jacobs) with the 24th overall selection.

Jacobs has the backfield more or less to himself, at least in terms of rushing attempts, after free agent signing Isaiah Crowell tore his ACL on Wednesday. He should be able to provide a bit of juice to the Raiders' backfield that sadly lacked it for large parts of 2018. Only the Cardinals averaged a lower Adjusted Rushing NEP per play than the Raiders' -0.06 last season.

But with so many other holes on the roster and the likelihood that the team will be quite bad again, Jacobs is unlikely to lead the NFL in rushing, and may need to rely on his receiving chops to pull voters to his banner.

This is not unheard of. After all, Alvin Kamara won this award in 2017, and a large reason for that was his pass-catching (81 receptions for 826 yards and 5 touchdowns). He added 728 yards on the ground (and another 8 scores.)

Jacobs will likely command a workload that will put him in the conversation, but it seems that an awful lot will have to go very, very right for him to bring home the trophy on a team whose win total is set at just 6.5 games.