Packers Camp — Aug 31: Jacobs to the Commissioner's Exempt List

The NFL placed Josh Jacobs on the Commissioner's Exempt List on Sunday, per Kevin Patra at NFL.com. Jacobs was arrested in Wisconsin in May and faced five domestic abuse-related charges, per Ryan Young at Yahoo Sports — misdemeanor counts of battery and criminal damage to property from an alleged altercation with his girlfriend, per Patra — and he denies the allegations. While on the list he is paid but cannot practice or play, his time on it is indefinite, and the league could still issue a suspension, per Young. Jacobs' representation called the placement "an administrative procedure used by the NFL while a matter is being reviewed," per Young. Those are the reported facts.

The roster response came the same day: Green Bay acquired running back Kaleb Johnson, a second-year back out of Iowa, from the Steelers for a 2028 sixth-round pick, per the transaction report at the team's website. The room Jacobs leaves behind — 234 carries, 929 yards and 13 rushing touchdowns in 2025 — now belongs to MarShawn Lloyd, Chris Brooks and Johnson, and Bill Huber's cut-day assessment at Packers On SI treated all three as wagers: "They'll be banking on Lloyd to stay healthy and live up to his potential, Brooks to be something he hasn't been and Johnson to be a quick study capable of restarting his career." The week's sequence: on Wednesday, before any of this, Brian Gutekunst said, "We've obviously been preparing for that in case that happens. But at the same time, I feel really good about the guys we have in that room," per Young. On Friday night, after the finale, Matt LaFleur said of Jacobs, "I fully anticipate him being a member of our team," per Mike Spofford at the team's website. On Sunday the league acted.

The rest of Sunday's ledger: 30 players released to reach 53, per the team's website — receivers Will Sheppard, Isaiah Neyor and Kisean Johnson, running backs Damien Martinez and Pierre Strong Jr., and long snapper Cal Adomitis among them. They also traded quarterback Kyle McCord to the Dolphins for a 2028 sixth-round pick, per Justis Mosqueda at Acme Packing Company — the same price they paid Pittsburgh for Kaleb Johnson, and a January reserve-futures signing converted into draft capital. Sixth-round rookie corner Domani Jackson was released, a cut the beat flagged: "just the third of 14 sixth-round picks Brian Gutekunst has released on cut day," per Matt Zenitz, via FOX 11's live blog. On the reserve side, Micah Parsons, Luke Musgrave and Jordon Riley went to the reserve/physically-unable-to-perform list — each ineligible for at least the season's first four games — while Collin Oliver and Savion Williams went to injured reserve with return designations, per the team's website. The day before, 10th-year tight end Jonnu Smith signed, with safety Tra Fluellen released as the corresponding move, per the team's website.

The battles our last episode left open mostly closed. The kicking job is Trey Smack's: the rookie made every field goal and extra point across all three preseason games and is the only kicker on the 53, per Huber, whose caveat was the honest one — "the key to everything will be how Smack performs in the regular season." At corner, all five made it — Keisean Nixon, rookie Brandon Cisse, Benjamin St-Juste, Carrington Valentine and Kamal Hadden — and Huber's read has Cisse and Nixon as the Week 1 pair — "does any team have a better pair of backups than the Packers with St-Juste and Valentine?" That is a cut-day read, not a settled fact; the first-unit reps that answer it happen in this week's practices. Jacob Monk, who held right guard through August, is the right guard on Huber's roster listing. And our finale watch item resolved as a no: neither Javon Hargrave nor Jacobs played, per the beat's game coverage, and Hargrave made the 53 anyway.

The finale itself: Packers 42, Cardinals 38 on Friday night at Lambeau Field, a rally in the final four minutes that LaFleur called "the most entertaining preseason game you've ever seen in your life," per Spofford. McCord played the whole game and went 22 of 35 for 226 yards and four touchdowns, the winner to Kisean Johnson with 20 seconds left — two days before McCord was traded and Johnson released. Undrafted receiver J. Michael Sturdivant caught six passes for 112 yards and a touchdown, per Mosqueda — and the performance translated: he made the 53 in a six-man receiver room, per Huber, while the finale's three receiver standouts did not. And edge Dani Dennis-Sutton, in individual drills two weeks ago after an overheating episode, recorded his first NFL sack, per Huber.

One correction from our own file: our last episode listed Luke Musgrave among the veterans who "all sat" the Denver game, which read as rest. It wasn't. Musgrave has a neck injury dating to June minicamp and spent camp on the physically-unable-to-perform list, per Zach Kruse at Packers Wire, and Sunday's move to the reserve list makes the absence at least four games. The better news in the same room: Tucker Kraft took full participation at Wednesday's joint practice with Arizona, his stated goal in his return from a torn ACL — "I felt free out there today," per Wes Hodkiewicz at the team's website — and safety Javon Bullard returned from the foot injury that same day and made the 53.

Back in July we previewed the Packers as the division's highest-floor offense carrying a defensive experiment — new coordinator, new scheme, no Parsons for the first month, Hargrave as the named insurance — and we've been checking that preview against camp every week since. Cut day made the defensive half official: Parsons' first-month absence is now a formal four-game minimum, and the insurance made the roster. But the change landed on the half of the preview we treated as settled — our August coverage framed Jacobs as a routine return from a groin injury, and the question that actually governed the backfield was the one the league answered Sunday. An offense built on a known floor now opens the season with three bets at running back, and that moves the read from confirmed to complicated.

What to watch next: waiver claims were due by noon Central on Monday, and where the 30 cut names land is the next episode's job — the Journal Sentinel's practice-squad tracker opened with zero confirmed signings, per Tom Silverstein, Ryan Wood and Christopher Kuhagen, and Huber's expectation that safety Mark Perry returns on the practice squad is only an expectation. Beyond the wave: which corners take the first-unit reps that test the Cisse-and-Nixon pairing, and how the Lloyd, Brooks and Johnson workload sorts itself before the opener at the Vikings. We'll check back once the claims and the practice squads are in.

_Data via nflverse._