When the Raiders shuffled their backfield in Week 8, the move wasn’t framed as a long-term demotion for Ashton Jeanty. It was more of a snapshot of where things stood in the moment.
Jeanty, the No. 6 overall pick in 2025, entered the season as the obvious centerpiece of the running game and has taken the most snaps among Raiders backs so far. But after averaging just over three yards a carry through the first seven games, his workload dipped against the Week 8 rotation. Mike Washington ended up with more snaps than Jeanty, handling 25 carries while Jeanty got just two.
Jeanty still found a way to make an impact. Most of his work came on passing downs, and he delivered a key 45-yard catch and run. Even so, the distribution of touches drew attention at Klint Kubiak’s Monday press conference.
Kubiak made it clear the setup is fluid, not fixed.
“I think it’s always a moving target,” Kubiak said. “You see where your team is at and who’s playing the best ball at the time.
It’s a 17-game regular season where things change every week. They’ve been changing at guard, they change up front defensively, they change at corner.
That’s the NFL. We have a young roster and we’re going to give guys opportunities and see what fits us best.
But your 11, whether you’re playing really well or not playing well at all, it’s always going to change a little bit.”
Kubiak said Washington’s practice work was a bigger factor in the decision than Jeanty’s production. On Sunday, Washington ran for 83 yards on 25 carries, which didn’t exactly transform the Raiders’ ground game, but it was enough to keep the conversation open about how the team wants to deploy its backs going forward.
The Raiders did win after four straight losses, and that kind of result tends to keep a coaching staff from rushing to undo what it just tried.
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