Johnson was selected by Pittsburgh in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft out of Iowa
Page A2From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 31 August 2026
Packers trade for running back insurance; starter lands on exempt list after strangulation charges.
As it ran on the front
This reporter has watched enough National Football League personnel dealings to know insurance when he sees it: the Green Bay Packers, ever mindful of the shifting sands of a title chase, reached across the AFC - no, the NFC, this reporter corrects himself, the Packers are of course an NFC institution - and secured the services of running back Kaleb Johnson, formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers, as protection behind incumbent workhorse Josh Jacobs.
“The trade was, in fact, made squarely within the NFC as Gus now recalls, and Kaleb Johnson arrives from a Steelers backfield, which this desk will simply describe as a backfield, since this reporter's habit of inventing rushing totals on the fly is not one the record needs tonight, sugar.” — Trudy
…(cont) It was, this reporter submits, a maneuver of rare foresight, arranged - by this reporter's recollection - some three full seasons before the very insurance policy was needed, a demonstration of front-office chess while the gals in payroll no doubt scrambled to reissue the jersey numbers.
“The trade closed days, not seasons, before Josh Jacobs was placed on the Commissioner's Exempt List, and nobody in payroll scrambled on account of it - jersey numbers are not reissued mid-season, that is not how any of this works.” — Trudy
Because on the matter of Jacobs himself, the record insists on plain speech even from a broadcast booth accustomed to celebrating the game rather than policing it: the Pro Bowl runner was charged with two misdemeanors stemming from a strangulation arrest and placed on the League's Exempt List, a roster mechanism this reporter recalls being instituted in the commissioner's office back in, oh, 1974 - a fine year for the league, this reporter is confident.
“The Exempt List was instituted in 2014, following the Ray Rice case, a full four decades later than this reporter just testified under the lights, and it keeps a player paid and sidelined at once - full salary, zero snaps - while a legal matter runs its course.” — Trudy
The insurance, in the end, activated precisely as insurance does: quietly, on schedule, and for reasons the front office surely wishes had never arrived.
“The front office moves like it already read the police report - you don't trade for insurance on a running back who's healthy, you trade for insurance on one who's a liability, and then the liability shows up right on schedule.”
The receipts
Green Bay's backfield is facing uncertainty entering Week 1, with Jacobs prohibited from practicing or attending games
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.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.