Albert Breer on Josh Jacobs & Terrion Arnold on Exempt List, Carrying 4 QB on Roster

That is a massive blow for the Green Bay Packers.

All right.

Welcome in to the Brew Report for August 31st.

We are on the doorstep of September and on the doorstep of the 2026 NFL season.

Just real quick before we start this morning's edition of the Breer Report, we did have a special edition last night on Aaron Donald.

So we are not avoiding the biggest news story.

We did our own episode on Aaron Donald yesterday.

You can check that out on my social media.

You can check that out on our YouTube page.

You can check that out on SI.

com.

So we have you covered when it comes to everything soup to nuts on the Aaron Donald situation.

How they got here, where they're going from here, so be sure to check that out.

Our first topic for today's Breer report is Josh Jacobs, the Packers star running back is going on the commissioner's exempt list.

That means he cannot practice or play with the team over the weeks to come.

That is a massive blow for the Green Bay Packers.

And I think as far as they're concerned, we'll get to this in a second, a little bit of a curveball.

Um, if you talked to people there 345 weeks ago, I think that they felt like the situation was wind up, was, was going to wind up resolving itself.

Again, I'll get to the ins and outs of that when we talk about Terry Ann Arnold here in a second.

But from a football perspective, there's no question it's a hit.

And a couple of years ago when they made the decision to sign Josh Jacobs, they really went from a model where they had running back by committee, and it was Aaron Jones and it was AJ Dillon back then.

Um, they had mixed different guys in We feel like we'll be better off with one special player as the bell cow, and Josh Jacobs, when he's been on the field, has lived up to expectations.

He also, in his defense, has a really good reputation as a person.

And so, you know, like they got what they had hoped they would get out of him over his first two years.

The problem with that is that, of course, when you do go all in on one back and you've got a little less behind him, if that back winds up getting injured or something like this happens.

You put yourself in a more difficult position and that's where they are now.

So who are the Packers relying on?

Well, it's Marshaw Lloyd, their 3rd-round pick from 2025 out of South Carolina, a very, very talented back who's never been able to stay healthy.

And so, can he finally stay healthy?

That's the question.

Again, highly drafted, highly talented, but whether or not he's able to stay healthy is an open question.

He's made it through camp.

We'll see what happens when the season starts.

And then they trade for Caleb Johnson from the Steelers.

Now, of course, trading for Caleb Johnson was in part a reaction to the commissioner's decision on Josh Jacobs.

Caleb Johnson, another one, highly drafted.

He was a 2nd-round pick of the Steelers a year ago, a very, very productive college player at Iowa.

Last year, he fell behind Kenneth Gainwell on the depth chart.

He lost a little confidence.

Um, by all accounts, he's a good kid, a hard worker, a tough kid, all of that.

They'll need to find a way to instill some more confidence in him and how that comes along, we'll see, but there is something to work with there.

So, You have one guy who, you know, has talent but hasn't been able to stay healthy.

You have another guy who has talent but hasn't quite been able to harvest it yet for different reasons.

So you have those two guys in the mix, lots of ifs, and again, this is the sort of spot the Packers are in now because they did go all in on Josh Jacobs a couple of years ago.

Um, and that's gonna affect the makeup of the offense as well.

You're still easing Tucker Kraft back in there coming off of the ACL.

You've got a different-looking receiver group this year after the trade of Jontavion Wicks and Romeo Dobbs being gone.

So, you know, you've really pushed your chips in the middle of the table and paying Christian Watson and Jaden Reid.

You hope Matthew Golden can come along.

Um, again, there's talent on that side of the ball .

You got, you know, you got Jordan Morgan moving to left tackle to replace Rasheed Walker.

There's just questions now on the offensive side of the ball.

And one thing that you could do to work through those questions is lean on the running game, and that becomes a little harder to do when you don't have Josh Jacobs in there.

OK, our second topic for today, and this will tie right back in to Josh Jacobs, Terry Ann Arnold is also going on the commissioner's exempt list.

I want to start with how we got here.

Which there are 3 guys that have gone on the commissioner's exempt list now.

Terry and Arnold, Josh Jacobs, and Jonathan Cooper.

Those 3 guys, I, I think the expectation was less than a month ago, that those guys were actually gonna be OK while their cases were being adjudicated .

The Broncos felt that way, you know, 4 weeks ago, the Packers felt that way 4 weeks ago.

And the Seahawks, and this is where we'll get to Arnold, the Seahawks.

When they brought him in for a visit, had gotten word from the league that he would probably be OK to practice and play.

So what changed?

Well, I think a couple of things changed over the course of the last few weeks.

Number one, there was the public reaction to Terry Ann Arnold, who was accused of some really terrible things, and we'll see what winds up coming out in the wash when he went on a free agent tour.

It really kind of rubbed some people the wrong way.

So the league sees that.

Then, There's the potential presence of video in the, the, the Josh Jacobs case, which, of course, now you look at this and say, all right, like, is there the potential this is another Ray Rice situation.

My understanding is the Packers still haven't even seen the video.

So there's a variable there with the video where you don't know what's on there.

So if you're worried about the video on the Jacobs case, You're worried about the perception that was out there on the Terry Arnold case.

You may not want Cris Collinsworth and JJ Watt and all those guys talking about these things when the games are played.

These are 3 teams that are in the middle of contending for Super Bowls and the Packers, and the Seahawks and the Broncos.

Uh, this, you know, obviously is something where the league looks at it.

This is me projecting a little bit, looks at it and says, We got to err on the side of caution.

Now, Cooper, there wasn't a specific reaction the way that there was with Arnold or the way there was with Jacobs with the video.

But now you got to take into account, OK, we got these 3 cases.

If we wind up putting a guy on the list who is cleared, and then a guy doesn't go on the list over here and he winds up being guilty.

Now, we look like the Keystone cops.

So the safe thing to do is just to put all the guys on the , on the commissioner's exempt list.

So that's what Roger Goodell did.

Again, after what they went through in 2014, I can't really blame them for being cautious in a situation like this.

One thing I had heard from the league office back then is we will never err on the side of leniency when it comes to a case like, to cases like this before.

They're very difficult cases .

To judge, um, you know, and many of them, and these cases included, only two people really know what happened.

And so, you know, I think in the, in these 3 cases, the league looks at it and says, let's hit the pause button.

Anyway, that's why the Seahawks delayed on signing him because they thought he wasn't gonna wind up in the commissioner's exempt list, then they found out, then they got word that he would wind up there, and so that slowed the process down a little bit.

That said, The Seahawks have done a ton of research on this.

So they have a couple of guys who are close to Terry and Arnold, who are on their roster from Alabama, Jalen Milroe, Robbie Outs, their, their fullback.

So you have those two guys that were resources.

You have Leon Washington.

Who, former Seahawks kick returner, still has relationships in the Seahawks organization, former Jet as well.

His son is actually half-brothers with Terrann Arnold.

So Leon Washington was a resource.

They talked directly to Nick Saban.

They also had a chance to talk to the Lions general manager, Brad Holmes, who, of course, was in the midst of all of this before they cut Terrann Arnold back in June.

And so gathering all the information.

And going back and looking at what they had on him before the draft, they felt like this was a worthwhile while gamble.

They get him on a one-year deal for 2026 if he plays, and then they'll have his RFA rights in 20207.

If he doesn't play in 2006, then they would have him for 227 with his RFAA rights for 28.

Either way, this is a guy who's a high-end talent, they believe he's gonna come in as motivated.

And I will say this again, it, it's really, really hard to talk about these cases in any sort of absolute terms.

Um, and this one's a little different, of course.

The Arnold case is a little different than the Jacobson Cooper case, cases.

But I would say, in this case, in the Arnold case specifically, you have other teams that were in pursuit of, of Arnold that said to me, it's not quite what you think.

So, I'm waiting to see how the facts come out, what, what, what the facts of the case are.

We've all seen what he's accused of, really bad.

Um, we'll see what winds up happening as this thing gets a little closer to actually going to court and then, um, you know, eventually, there's some sort of resolution or settlement, um, on the whole deal, but Seahawks are gonna have to wait on our own .

Now, the Packers are gonna have to wait on Jacobs, and the Broncos are gonna have to wait on Cooper.

Finally, our third topic, and I thought this is an anomaly of the cutdown and, and a really interesting one was we have 4 teams that kept 4 quarterbacks on the roster and a 5th in the Browns that have 4, that are keeping 4 quarterbacks, although 1 is going to IR.

So, the Eagles are holding on to Jalen Hurts, to Tanner McKee, to Andy Dalton, and Nicole Payton, the rookie that they drafted out of North Dakota State.

The Steelers are keeping Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, and Drew Aller, who they just drafted out of Penn State.

The Vikings are keeping 4, Kyler Murray, JJ McCarthy, Carson Wentz, and Max Broser.

The Falcons are keeping 4.

Michael Pennox, Tua Tungavaloa, Jack Strand , the underdog of training camp, and Cooper Rush, an experienced backup.

And then the Browns, of course, have Deshaun Watson, Shado Sanders, Taylin Green, the impressive rookie out of Arkansas, at least he's impressive athletically, and then Dylan Gabriel going on IR at least in the short term.

So you add All of these things together.

Why is this happening?

I, I think the number one thing is, this is a piece of asset management.

And in each of these cases, I think the teams are looking at the quarterbacks as assets and thinking to themselves, maybe we can trade one of these guys, maybe we can move some things around.

You also look at the, in the specific cases.

In some of them, you have a couple of developmental guys that the teams want to keep working with.

So, again, like the Eagles, maybe thought by now they'd be able to move Tanner McKee and bringing in Andy Dalton gave them the freedom to move Tanner McKee.

They haven't been able to move McKee yet.

Cole Payton's the guy they've got the pipeline to replace McKee as their developmental quarterback.

Steelers.

So, they've got Aaron Rodgers, Will Howard going into his 2nd year.

They want to keep working with Will Howard.

They got Drew Aller, 3rd-round pick.

He's a rookie, obviously, he's gonna be on the team, but do they feel comfortable with Howard or Aller if they were to lose Aaron Rodgers for 3 or 4 games?

No, they probably feel more comfortable with Mason Rudolph.

So, each of these are circumstantial.

And I, you know, I think in each case, it'll be interesting to see what happens as the season goes on.

Maybe there's a point where one of the 23 of these teams feel like they can sneak somebody through to the practice squad.

That certainly could be something that you would look at.

Um, there also could be a point where another team has an injury at quarterback, or even this week, somebody decides they're a little low at quarterback.

Maybe you move one of them.

We saw Miami was able to move Quinn Ewers and the Packers were able to move Kyle McCoy to replace Quinn Ewers in Miami.

Um, so that could potentially happen.

And then there's, of course, the scenario where they need the roster spot.

This is an important piece of it.

46 guys on game day isn't a lot.

People look at that number and, and they, they'll look at like a backup receiver, backup corner.

Why didn't they keep him?

He looked good in the preseason.

Well, when you get down to your 5th corner, your 5th receiver, And if those guys don't play special teams, those guys don't bring special team value, you look at it and say, how am I gonna dress this guy on game day?

How can I give him a jersey when he's not gonna be contributing on kickoff or kickoff return or punt or punt return or the field goal team.

And so You know, you talk about how precious these, these, these roster spots are.

Backup quarterbacks generally aren't gonna do anything on special teams.

Now, maybe you can use an athlete like a Peyton or a Green in a certain way, but it's tough to burn a roster spot, especially if you got to address these guys on game day, um, or you're giving up a developmental spot you would have on your inactive list for another quarterback.

It can be difficult to manage your roster when you're, you're sinking.

Uh, uh, a spot into another player who doesn't contribute on special teams.

So interesting to see where those five teams go from there, but I thought that was a little bit of an anomaly coming out of the cutdown.

Appreciate you guys coming out as always.

Uh, you can comment down here on my YouTube page.

Um, you can leave your feedback there as well, or you can get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert R Breer on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram.

Appreciate you guys coming, coming out.

We will see you later in the week.