Rookie Josh Jacobs sits in the top spot at running back on the Oakland Raiders’ first depth chart for 2019, but don’t expect the first-round draft pick from Alabama to get a lot of work when the NFL team opens its preseason schedule on Saturday night.

The Raiders and Los Angeles Rams will square off at 7 p.m. CDT Saturday at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum after holding joint practices on Wednesday and Thursday.

“We have to use this as preseason, in some ways," Gruden said about the two workouts with the Rams when asked on Thursday about his plans for Jacobs’ preseason work. “We’re not going to go out and give Josh Jacobs 35 or 40 carries in August. But he carried the ball a lot in the last two days. I think you see vision, you see patience and you see burst. And what you haven’t seen is live, full-speed tackling, and, hopefully, he gets a couple shots in August, but our fans will to have to wait to see most of that when the (Denver) Broncos come to town (for the first regular-season game on Sept. 9).”

Among the NFL's 32 teams, Oakland's offense came in No. 25 in rushing yards last season, and only three teams scored fewer rushing touchdowns than the Raiders' nine.

Oakland used the 24th choice in the NFL Draft on April 25 to obtain Jacobs, making him the first running back selected in the 2019 draft.

“He’s working good,” Gruden said on Sunday about Jacobs’ training camp. “I’ve always said he’s got all the things you’re looking for. He can catch, he can block, he’s tough, he’s got breakaway speed. He’s got all the things I’m looking for, but he’s got to put it all together, and when he does, I think he’s got a chance to be a feature back -- and a good one -- in the NFL. He’s on the right track.”

What's a rookie gotta do to get his catch rating up in #Madden20? 👀



What a beauty from @iAM_JoshJacobs. pic.twitter.com/mvhf2c8s2G — Oakland Raiders (@Raiders) August 3, 2019

Jacobs said he knows the Raiders have “high expectation for me.”

“Every day, Gruden’s telling me, ‘We expect you to win Rookie of the Year,’ all this other kind of stuff,” Jacobs said. “So it’s just like I’ve got to put myself in position to get there.”

Jacobs said he does that by striving to get better every day at training camp.

“It’s always things I come into each practice trying to improve on, whether it’s like route running or the way in which I go about picking up protection or things like that,” Jacobs said. “But a lot of the vets’ve been telling me they’re surprised how fast I’m coming along and how natural it looks, so I don’t know, I guess I’ll just try to improve every day.”

When things haven’t gone right, Jacobs said his strategy has been to “just push the reset button. Whenever you mess up or something, just play the next play. You see a lot of rookies when they mess up, they’re in their head a lot. There’s so much you already have to think about, so just play the next play and push the reset button."

Before the Raiders-Rams practices, Gruden had said he'd hoped Jacobs would watch Los Angeles running back Todd Gurley.

“Watch him work," Gruden said. "Watch how he handles the blitz protections and the audibles. They do a lot at the line of scrimmage, in different tempos and he is a sharp guy. He’s very sharp. He’s not just a great runner, and he’s not just a stat machine. This guy does a lot of great things without the ball, and I hope Josh gets a chance to witness it.”

The 2017 NFL Offensive Player of the Year, Gurley also got a chance to watch Jacobs work against the Rams' defense.

“He’s a great running back," Gurley said. "Got a chance to watch him at Bama. He’s a first-round pick with a lot of talent, so I’m looking forward to watching him ball out with them this year. Haven’t really had a chance to talk to him too much; got a chance to talk to him just a little bit out here.

"He’ll be fine, man. He just has to keep doing what he’s been doing, you know, the things that got him here. He’s got a good team around him.”

Gruden said he liked what he saw against the Rams, too.

“We had some very good running snaps (Thursday) against a very good running defense with a loaded box,” Gruden said, “and I liked that. We ran it into some tough looks against good players and made yards.”

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