You undoubtedly already heard that Packers RB Josh Jacobs landed on the commissioner's exempt list Sunday. That knocks him out of action indefinitely because the league has no explicit rules for how long a player can stay on there or the effect of specific infractions. But we do have some precedent that may -- or may not -- help us decipher Jacobs' outlook.
It's Basically Been a Holding Pen for Assault Cases
As far as I can tell, we've had 19 players land on the exempt list to date, including the three from this season. Here's that roster, each player's start date, relative end date (more on that later), and some details about his situation:
| Player | Pos | Start | End | Stint | Offense |
| Michael Vick | QB | 9/5/09 | 9/15/09 | 10 days | Dog fighting |
| Adrian Peterson | RB | 9/17/14 | 4/17/15 | 212 days | Child abuse |
| Greg Hardy | Edge | 9/17/14 | 3/10/15* | 174 days | Domestic violence |
| Josh McNary | LB | 1/15/15 | 9/6/15 | 234 days | Rape charges; acquitted |
| Josh Brown | K | 10/21/16 | indefinite | Domestic violence allegations; released and never played again | |
| Reuben Foster | LB | 11/27/18 | April 2019 | 5 months | Misdemeanor domestic battery; charges dismissed |
| Kareem Hunt | RB | 11/30/18 | 3/15/19 | 3.5 months | Released, signed following February; suspended 8 games in 2019 |
| Kamrin Moore | CB | 7/24/19 | 8/31/19* | 38 days | Domestic violence; released by team, grand jury didn't indict; never played again |
| Anthony Chickillo | Edge | 10/23/19 | 10/31/19 | 8 days | Domestic violence charges, but they got withdrawn |
| DeAndre Baker | CB | 7/27/20 | 9/8/20* | 43 days | Armed robbery charges; released by team, returned Week 15 of 2020 after charges dropped |
| Quinton Dunbar | CB | 7/27/20 | 8/9/20 | 13 days | Arrested with Baker but never formally charged |
| Cody Latimer | WR | 7/27/20 | 8/23/20* | 27 days | Assault charges involving firing a gun; released, never played again |
| Drew Ogletree | TE | 12/30/23 | 4/19/24 | 111 days | Domestic violence; removed after charges "dismissed with prejudice" |
| Michael Hall Jr. | DT | 8/27/24 | 10/7/24 | 41 days | Domestic violence; served 5-game suspension upon reinstatement, missed 7 games total |
| Jabrill Peppers | S | 10/9/24 | 11/25/24 | 47 days | Assault and battery plus; missed 8 games before coming off list while case was still ongoing |
| Jimmie Ward | S | 8/26/25 | 9/22/25 | 27 days | Two arrests tied to domestic assault allegations; removed after grand jury declined to indict but never played that season and was away from team before exemption |
| Terrion Arnold | CB | 8/30/26 | Felony robbery and kidnapping charges; case ongoing | ||
| Jonathon Cooper | Edge | 8/30/26 | Felony domestic-violence charges; arrested twice in offseason | ||
| Josh Jacobs | RB | 8/30/26 | Misdemeanor domestic-violence charges |
(* marks players whose term ended with releases rather than reinstatements.)
First, let me acknowledge that I used "domestic violence" as a catch-all for a bunch of different situations that varied in the severity of charges and non-football punishment. The only real point of that is to go shorthand rather than overload the table with details that mostly won't matter for our purposes here.
Why did I include positions? Because it pretty obviously matters how replaceable a player is. Greg Hardy might have presented the most serious situation of all the pre-2026 players, but Dallas signed him after Carolina released him because he was really good at football and played a premium position. Josh Brown, by comparison, disappeared from the NFL even without ever facing formal criminal charges.
Who Are the Comps Here?
We obviously can't treat any of these cases as equal. Absolutely no pair of circumstances presents all the same details. So we will never be doing any more than guessing at what to expect, just like we have to this point in the Jacobs case.
But we can try to whittle down to some players who might actually provide some guidance. Here's who I'm looking at and why:
- Adrian Peterson: This situation differed in that it centered on a parent's treatment of a child rather than a conflict between adults. Peterson disciplined his son with a "switch." The team and Peterson wound up agreeing to request the exemption after outcry from the public and sponsors. Peterson missed the final 15 games of the 2014 season.
- Hardy: The former Panther missed the same span of 2014 games in a domestic-assault case that found him guilty via "bench trial," and then got complicated after that. The league further suspended him for 10 games after he signed with the Cowboys, but that got reduced to four on appeal.
- Reuben Foster: This second-year, first-round, starting LB got released by the 49ers after his charges surfaced. The league removed him from the exempt list after the charges got dropped. Foster got chances with other teams but never played another NFL game.
- Kareem Hunt: The RB had been playing amid assault charges, but then video of the incident came out. That spurred the league action and Kansas City to release him. Hunt missed the remainder of 2018, signed with the Browns in February, got reinstated, and then served an eight-game suspension to open 2019.
- Jabrill Peppers: The safety missed eight games in the middle of 2024 before getting reinstated despite his case still being tried.
What Do Those Cases Tell Us?
The league can say what it wants about it's care for players and/or alleged victims, but the NFL is a PR company. We have more than enough history to tell us that it cares more about its image than taking "care" of anyone.
The NFL wants to look good publicly while protecting itself from litigation in these actions. And that's what makes the exempt list so unpredictable.
What do the examples above tell us? Unless the charges against Jacobs get dropped soon, we should expect the RB to miss at least 6-8 games. That's the window that would match previous suspensions/absences for domestic-violence cases, including some that never produced formal charges.
The remaining wild card here is the video that reportedly exists from the Jacobs incident. It's possible the league has already seen this video and jumped to action before it got leaked publicly.
If that occurs, Jacobs' standing with the team could be in jeopardy. (Think Hunt and Ray Rice.) That circumstance might even carry career-ending potential for a 28-year-old RB. And perhaps that video possibility exists even if the league hasn't viewed the evidence yet.
If, however, the existing video doesn't rise to the level of stirring public reaction, we might see Jacobs back on the field by mid-season.
Arraignment in Jacobs' trial is set for mid-November, leaving no chance for the case to get resolved during the season unless there's a deal (which seems unlikely) or charges get dropped.
So, Should You Draft Jacobs?
That's the answer we all want. Unfortunately, there's no straight answer to this one.
Anyone who says he knows what's gonna happen with Jacobs is lying.
(And I say "he" because ... let's be real, guys ... we're the doofuses more likely to speak as though we know what we're talking about when we clearly don't.)
Jacobs currently sits in RB4 range of our rankings. Any time from there on seems reasonable for taking a shot on a guy with RB1 upside if he returns.
But you should also feel free to pass on him completely in your draft.
What About MarShawn Lloyd?
The uncertainty around Jacobs also leaves obvious uncertainty around Lloyd. But here's where the third-year Packer has settled in our rankings (as of this writing):
You can click on your preferred format to see exactly who he's tied with and who else sits around him.
Lloyd's an exciting athlete about to get his first healthy shot at NFL action. That lack of previous opportunity obviously carries risk, but he belongs easily ahead of fellow Green Bay backups Kaleb Johnson and Chris Brooks.
And What About Those Defensive Exempt-List Guys?
I was honestly surprised that another team bothered to sign Arnold after Detroit dumped its 2024 first-round pick.
That action by the Lions pointed to the severity of the charges against him. That Seattle signed him anyway reinforces the notion that your talent level and positional value matters at least as much as your criminal offense.
I'm still not betting on seeing Arnold take the field in 2026.
Same deal with Cooper, who faces more serious domestic-violence charges than Jacobs (including felony second-degree assault by strangulation).
You won't find Arnold or Cooper anywhere in our rankings for your IDP league.
