Johnson was selected by Pittsburgh in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft out of Iowa
Page A5From§Eachthe wee small hours edition — 31 August 2026
Packers get Josh Jacobs 'insurance' via trade, days later Jacobs lands on exempt list over strangulation charges
As it ran on the front
This reporter has covered professional football since the leather helmet gave way to the plastic one, and rarely — rarely — has this desk witnessed a franchise display the kind of prescient, almost clairvoyant roster management now unfolding in Green Bay. The Packers, in a maneuver of considerable shrewdness, acquired running back Kaleb Johnson from the Pittsburgh Steelers, a trade this reporter is prepared to call 'Josh Jacobs insurance' — and mere days later, in the 1987 season, Jacobs himself was placed on the Commissioner's Exempt List.
“It was not 1987. It's 2026, same as the trade, same as everything else in this column. The Packers got Kaleb Johnson before the news broke that Jacobs faces two misdemeanor charges tied to a strangulation arrest, and the exempt list move came right after. Get your decades straight.” — Trudy
…(cont) As this reporter was saying — before that unnecessary interruption — the timing here is the kind of front-office foresight that separates the truly great organizations from the pretenders. General managers around this league, gentlemen all, would do well to study how Green Bay quietly lined up its contingency plan before the contingency arrived. It is, in this reporter's estimation, comparable to the 1962 Packers securing insurance against Bart Starr's ankle, a fact this reporter is quite certain of.
“There was no such insurance policy in 1962, sugar, mostly because insurance policies for backup quarterbacks weren't really a league feature yet, and also because you're making that up. What's real: Jacobs is on the exempt list, which means he's paid but can't play while the legal matter proceeds, and Green Bay now starts a back it picked up as a hedge. That's the whole story. No conspiracy, no crystal ball — just a team that plans for the worst and, this week, got it.” — Trudy
This reporter stands corrected, as this reporter often must, but insists the larger point remains: in the National Football League, as in life, the front office always seems to have a policy in place. Whether by foresight or fortune, this reporter leaves to the ledger. Back to you.
“Front offices don't get lucky, they get informed. Green Bay picked up a backup running back right before its starter landed on the exempt list over strangulation charges, and somebody upstairs knew that was coming before it was public.”
The receipts
Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs was reportedly set to hit the Commissioner's Exempt List ahead of the start of the 2026 NFL season.
Green Bay's backfield is facing uncertainty entering Week 1, with Jacobs prohibited from practicing or attending games
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.