2024 NFL free agency matchmaker for each AFC team: Ravens add power with Josh Jacobs
CBS Sports paired every AFC team with one hypothetical free-agent fit ahead of the market opening, floating former Raiders back Josh Jacobs as a power complement to Baltimore's backfield.
With NFL free agency opening in mid-March 2024, CBS Sports writer Jared Dubin published a team-by-team "matchmaker" exercise on March 7, pairing every AFC club with a single outside free agent he argued would fit best. The Baltimore Ravens were paired with running back Josh Jacobs, then coming off his time with the Las Vegas Raiders, as a power-running complement to Baltimore's existing backfield.
Dubin's reasoning centered on scheme fit rather than a prediction the move would happen. "To be honest, it's hard to see the Ravens actually doing this. But wouldn't it be really cool?" he wrote, describing Jacobs as a fit alongside Justice Hill and an injured Keaton Mitchell in Baltimore's Lamar Jackson-led offense.
The piece was explicitly speculative, and Dubin's own framing acknowledged the Ravens pairing was a stretch. In the free agency period that actually followed, Baltimore signed Derrick Henry rather than Jacobs, who instead joined the Green Bay Packers -- a reminder that these matchmaker exercises are analyst projections, not reporting on completed moves.
How the matchmaker exercise worked
CBS Sports ran the same format across all 16 AFC teams, naming one target free agent per club along with a rationale tied to each roster's needs. Other pairings in the same piece included Darnell Mooney to the Buffalo Bills as a speed complement to Stefon Diggs, Kevin Zeitler to the Miami Dolphins for interior offensive-line depth, Marquise Brown to the New England Patriots, and Saquon Barkley to the Houston Texans.
What actually happened with Jacobs and the Ravens
The eventual outcome diverged from the CBS Sports projection: Jacobs signed with the Green Bay Packers on March 11, 2024, on a four-year, $48 million deal, according to CBS Sports' own subsequent reporting on the signing. The Ravens instead added future Hall of Fame candidate Derrick Henry at running back. Green Bay's move to sign Jacobs came bundled with releasing incumbent back Aaron Jones, ESPN reported.
How Green Bay explained cutting Aaron Jones
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst called the decision to release Jones "one of the hardest decisions we've had to make in my time with the Packers and not one taken lightly," according to CBS Sports' coverage of the roster move. Head coach Matt LaFleur said of Jones, "As good of a player as Aaron is on the field, he is an even better person, when I arrived in Green Bay as a first-time head coach, he was instrumental in establishing our winning culture and always served as the greatest example of what it meant to be a Packer," per the same CBS Sports report. LaFleur later told reporters the move "kind of caught me off guard, to be honest with you," adding, "It just happened really fast on that Monday," according to a separate CBS Sports account of his comments. For his part, Jacobs called Jones a "legend" in Green Bay, saying, per Packers beat coverage, "I already know what kind of guy he is. A great dude, and obviously he's a legend around here just from what he's done in his time that he's been here."
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by CBS Sports and ESPN. It restores a story originally published on this site in March 2024; figures are as reported at the time.