Ashton Jeanty’s season has been a grind on the ground, but the second half is lining up to look a lot different.
The Raiders rookie has been stuck in a rough stretch since his 100-yard opener in Week 1, averaging just 2.9 yards per carry since then. A foot issue, layered on top of the ankle injury he dealt with late in the preseason, likely hasn’t helped. Neither has the blocking in front of him.
Las Vegas also toyed with the backfield rotation in Week 8 against the New York Jets, when Mike Washington Jr. got the heavy workload and Jeanty barely saw the ball. Washington handled 25 carries to Jeanty’s two, though the rookie still didn’t do much with the opportunity, finishing with 83 rushing yards.
A week later against the San Francisco 49ers, the Raiders’ ground game stayed quiet, and the game script didn’t help. Las Vegas was chasing the game all night and finished with only 15 rushing attempts. Still, the snap split swung back toward Jeanty, who logged 32 snaps to Washington Jr.’s 17.
Jeanty made a modest step forward on the stat sheet, too, going for 25 yards on six carries. Washington finished with minus-3 yards on the same number of attempts. It’s a small sample, but the backfield pecking order looked like it should, and it should remain that way.
Where Jeanty has really made his mark is as a receiver. He enters Week 10 leading NFL running backs with 42 catches and 371 receiving yards, and no other back has reached 300 receiving yards yet. That part of his game should keep paying off.
The Raiders also made a major change at quarterback by trading Kirk Cousins back to the Minnesota Vikings on trade deadline day, kicking off what the article calls the Fernando Mendoza Era. With Brock Bowers, Jeanty should be one of the main outlets for the rookie quarterback, especially as a safety valve.
Week 10 brings a tough test against the Seattle Seahawks, but there’s a clear opening for Las Vegas: getting Jeanty involved through the air. Seattle has allowed 5.8 targets and 4.8 receptions per game to running backs, right in the middle of the pack. Against wide receivers and tight ends, though, the Seahawks have been much stingier in both raw production and fantasy points.
The schedule after Seattle also looks workable for Jeanty. The Raiders don’t run into another defense currently top-15 against the run until the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 18. The Denver Broncos in Weeks 11 and 15, the Cleveland Browns in Week 12, the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 14, the Tennessee Titans in Week 16 and the Arizona Cardinals in Week 17 all entered Week 10 ranked 19th or worse against the run.
ESPN fantasy analyst Eric Moody pointed out that the Raiders have the seventh-best remaining schedule for running backs. Mike Clay’s strength of schedule cheat sheet had Las Vegas with the 13th-best remaining schedule entering Week 10, which would seem to line up after the Seahawks game is out of the way.
Mendoza should also help the run game by changing the way defenses have to play the Raiders. Cousins did enough to make himself a trade asset, but his arm strength and mobility limited what Klint Kubiak could do, and defenses were able to crowd the run.
Mendoza brings more mobility and a fresher arm, which should force defenses to respect the passing game more than they have for most of the season. If Kubiak wants to mix in an RPO, Mendoza can also keep the ball and pick up yards on the ground.
It hasn’t been much fun for Jeanty as a runner lately, but Week 9 offered a hint that things may be turning. The outlook from here looks much better.
In Other News...
Raiders Defensive Mess Now Puts Rob Leonard In The Spotlight
Following the loss to the 49ers, Rob Leonard found himself answering for a defense that has been too easy to score on and too inconsistent to trust. The Raiders defensive coordinator said he appreciated coach Klint Kubiaks public backing, but the bigger issue is the units play on the field, where Las Vegas has been giving up a league-worst 29.8 points per game this season.
Leonards comments landed on a day when Kubiak also made another notable call, announcing Fernando Mendoza as the starting quarterback for the next game. For a Raiders team trying to steady itself on both sides of the ball, the defensive conversation is now impossible to separate from the larger urgency around the roster, and Leonard is the one carrying the spotlight until the group starts showing more consistency. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Trade For Kirk Cousins Looks Different After Vikings Decision
Minnesotas decision to keep Kirk Cousins under center in Week 10 adds another layer to a trade that already had plenty of weight for Las Vegas. The Raiders sent Cousins to the Vikings in a deal that brought back a third-round pick, and the move now looks even more consequential given how much of the offense he had handled in 2026 before the swap.
For the Raiders, the trade was never just about moving on from a veteran quarterback, it was about betting on the value of the return and the direction of the roster. Cousins had started nine games in Las Vegas, completing 64.1 percent of his passes with 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions, so Minnesotas willingness to put him back in the lineup only sharpens the question of what the Raiders gave up and what they still need to answer at the position. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Upset Hopes May Hinge On A Few Brutal Matchups
Fernando Mendoza is set to make his first start at quarterback for the Raiders in a Week 10 meeting with the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks, and the timing could hardly be tougher. Las Vegas is walking into a game where the margins look thin on both sides of the ball, with Seattle bringing a deep, proven roster and a matchup sheet that asks plenty of a quarterback still getting his first real turn.
The Raiders will need to sort through a few brutal individual battles if they want any shot at turning this into an upset, from coaching familiarity to the tight end and defensive back matchups that can swing hidden yardage and red-zone chances. On the other side, Seattles healthy running back group puts real pressure on a Raiders run defense that has to hold up long enough to keep Mendoza from being forced into a chase mode all afternoon. [Read more 🡒]