Ashton Jeanty’s second NFL season is shaping up as the kind of setup the Las Vegas Raiders were hoping for when they took him No. 6 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft.
The preseason ankle injury created a little early concern, but the bigger picture still points to a potential jump in 2026. Jeanty didn’t put up the kind of eye-popping numbers he delivered at Boise State, yet his rookie year still gave the Raiders plenty to work with, especially considering the issues up front. He finished as the league’s top rookie rusher with 975 yards on 266 carries and five touchdowns, then added another layer to his game with 55 catches for 346 yards and five more scores.
That receiving production is where the next step comes into focus. If Jeanty is going to turn Year 2 into a breakout, the passing game is where he can become even more dangerous.
The quarterback situation should help. With veteran Kirk Cousins expected to open the season under center, the Raiders won’t need Jeanty and the ground game to do quite as much heavy lifting in pass protection as they might have if No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza had been the starter.
That doesn’t make Jeanty any less important. If anything, it opens the door for him to become the fuller, more versatile back the Raiders want him to be.
Head coach Klint Kubiak has already made it clear how he sees the role. Earlier this spring, he said the Raiders plan to lean on Jeanty and try to get a Christian McCaffrey-type impact out of him.
"We want to put a lot of pressure on Ashton," Kubiak said, via ESPN. "...
I don't know the play snap percentage, but you look at Christian McCaffrey, his play snap percentage is high. So, those great backs, they don't want to come off the field."
The ankle issue may have changed the short-term plan, but it also gave Mike Washington Jr. a chance to carve out a role. His emergence gives Las Vegas a real possibility of using two backs instead of asking Jeanty to shoulder everything himself.
“I think that they’re both going to prepare to play a lot of football,” Kubiak said, as transcribed by NFL.com. “As these games unfold, you react to the game.
I think we’ve got two guys that we’re really excited about. We’ve got some younger guys that we’re really excited about, too.
… They’ve just got to make the most of every rep that they get.
"I'm not making any promises on percentages of play time. It’s when you get to a game sometimes a guy who think is gonna have five carries has 20.
Sometimes the guy that you think is just going to be a scat protection back is in there blocking six-man protection for 20 reps. We’ve got to get ready for them to play all three phases.”
Jeanty should have enough time to be ready for Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins, and the Raiders can be smart with his workload early if they want to. With Washington also in the mix, there’s no need to force the issue.
Still, the real pressure sits on Jeanty himself. He has to build on a rookie season that was encouraging, if not spectacular, and get back to the punishing, explosive style that made him one of college football’s most electric backs during his historic 2024 season at Boise State. If he can pair that with the receiving ability he already flashed as a rookie, Year 2 could be the season he becomes the complete NFL running back the Raiders thought they were drafting.
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