The Raiders’ ground game is running out of excuses, and Ashton Jeanty is at the center of it.
What looked like a rough rookie year that could be blamed on the coaching staff has turned into a tougher conversation in Jeanty’s first five games under head coach Klint Kubiak. After managing only 27 rushing yards against the New England Patriots on Sunday, Jeanty is up to 264 rushing yards on the season and is on pace for 897 rushing yards - 78 fewer than he finished with a year ago.
The efficiency has slipped too. Jeanty’s yards per carry has dropped from 3.7 last year to 3.4 this season, which stands out even more because the Raiders have spent real energy trying to improve the run game.
The offensive line has had its share of blame, but that only goes so far. When a team uses a first-round pick on a running back, the expectation is that he can still produce when the blocking isn’t clean.
That’s why the bigger question has become whether Jeanty is truly an every-down back.
It wasn’t a conversation anyone was having a month ago, but at 5’8, 208 pounds, Jeanty is starting to draw a different kind of comparison - maybe as much Jacquizz Rodgers as Maurice Jones-Drew.
There’s also no obvious reason the Raiders should be this limited on the ground. With Tyler Linderbaum in the middle of the offensive line and Kolton Miller healthy, a Kubiak-coached offense was expected to look better than this through the first five games.
Jeanty did finish third in the NFL in broken tackles in 2025, so the ability to shake defenders is there. The issue now is that he has not looked nearly as elusive in his second season, and the production hasn’t followed.
The other part of the equation is Mike Washington Jr.
After Jeanty was limited in practice Thursday and then held out Friday, Washington was expected by many to get more work against the Patriots. Instead, the rookie got just one carry. Still, the numbers suggest there may be room for more of a split: Washington is averaging 5.0 yards per carry on 24 carries.
He hasn’t been used in the same situations as Jeanty, and he isn’t strong in pass protection, but the Raiders are not getting enough from Jeanty on the ground right now to ignore the possibility of a timeshare.
If Jeanty’s ankle is the real issue, the simplest answer might be giving him a week off and seeing what the offense looks like without him. And if the running game still falls apart, then the problem may be bigger than anyone in the backfield.
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The timing matters for Las Vegas because the Patriots are still sorting through several injuries at once, including Gonzalez and Davis, and the available depth at cornerback and receiver is far from ideal. With A.J. Brown and Mack Hollins unavailable at wideout, New England is walking into the game with a thinner margin for error than it would like, and the makeup of the secondary will be worth watching long before the first snap is over. [Read more 🡒]