By the time Las Vegas got running back Josh Jacobs to practice last year, the Raiders were less than two weeks away from their season-opening game.

This time around, the former Alabama ball-carrier is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on March 13, but it appears doubtful that this NFL offseason will play out the same as the last one did for Jacobs.

During the opening of a computer lab that he sponsored at the Las Vegas Promise Neighborhood last week, Jacobs told Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he is “not stressing” over his next contract.

“I trust in God’s plan,” Jacobs said. “Obviously, this is home for me. Regardless how it plays out, this is still somewhere I will forever keep a house and things like that. I will forever keep a home.”

READ VINCENT BONSIGNORE’S “RAIDERS FREE AGENT RB ‘NOT STRESSING’ ABOUT FUTURE, HOPES TO RETURN

In the 2022 season, Jacobs led the NFL in rushing yards with 1,653 and yards from scrimmage with 2,053.

Last year’s offseason impasse began when Las Vegas used its franchise tag to prevent the rushing champion from becoming a free agent in March. The franchise tag guaranteed Jacobs a $10.091 million payday for the 2023 season and gave the team and player until July 17 to work out a multi-year deal.

They failed to do so, and Jacobs never signed the franchise-tag tender. Once the deadline passed, NFL rules prohibited the Raiders from offering Jacobs anything but a one-year contract.

In the end, Jacobs signed a contract that had $10.091 million in guaranteed money – the value of the franchise tag. But the contract also would pay Jacobs $100,000 for every game he was on Las Vegas’ game-day roster, and it had another $200,000 available in incentives.

Despite the late entry into the Raiders’ preparations for the 2023 season, Jacobs was in the starting lineup for the opening game on Sept. 10. But his output dropped to 805 rushing yards and 1,101 yards from scrimmage as he missed the final four games of the season with a quadriceps injury.

This offseason, Jacobs’ representatives are dealing with a new front office. Eight games into the 2023 season, Las Vegas fired coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler.

Linebackers coach Antonio Pierce completed the season as the interim head coach, and he has been retained to lead the team into the 2024 campaign. Pierce hired Luke Getsy as the offensive coordinator after he had spent the past two seasons in that position with the Chicago Bears.

Tom Telesco came aboard as the general manager in January after spending the past 11 seasons in that role for the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers.

Jacobs spoke as though he would be back with the Raiders in 2024.

“I trust the system and the guys that they’re putting together,” Jacobs said. “I know that the guys that they’re going to bring back and the guys that they’re going to bring in are going to be fully bought in, so it’s going to be a fun season.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.