The NFL put Packers running back Josh Jacobs on paid administrative leave Sunday via placement on the commissioner’s exempt list, rendering him ineligible to play while he faces misdemeanor charges related to alleged domestic abuse.
The league’s decision came as NFL teams faced a 6 p.m. ET deadline Sunday to reduce their rosters to 53 players for the season. On Saturday, the NFL said it would place Seahawks cornerback Terrion Arnold on the exempt list once his contract was filed with the league office.
Jacobs faces misdemeanor charges of battery and criminal damage to property. The Brown County (Wis.) District Attorney’s Office announced the charges Thursday after Jacobs was arrested in May on initial charges related to domestic abuse, including felony strangulation and suffocation.
“Josh Jacobs has been placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List, which is an administrative procedure used by the NFL while a matter is being reviewed,” Jacobs’s attorneys David Z. Chesnoff, Richard A. Schonfeld, and Clarence F. Duchac III said in a written statement Sunday provided to Front Office Sports. “It is not a final determination. Josh respects the NFL process, the Packers, and his Coaches and Teammates. He looks forward to his return to the team and the NFL.”
