Raiders Intend To Use RB Ashton Jeanty As Workhorse

Two weeks after ESPN’s Ryan McFadden reported that new Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak said he “would like to have a two-running back system” to “take some of the workload off” Ashton Jeanty, a new report seems to offer a change in stance. McFadden’s report this week suggested that Kubiak wants to give Jeanty a Christian McCaffrey-like snap share in his sophomore campaign.

Two weeks ago, we wrote about the potential Arkansas rookie running back Mike Washington Jr. held in his ability to relieve Jeanty of some of his massive workload. Running backs in Las Vegas last year carried the ball 307 times; Jeanty’s 266 carries accounted for 86.6% of them. Out of 994 offensive snaps for the Raiders, Jeanty was on the field for 770 (77.5%) of them. For context, McCaffrey’s 311 carries accounted for 77.2% of the team’s 403 carries by running backs, and he was on the field for 1,014 (81.7%) of the team’s 1,241 snaps.

“We want to put a lot of pressure on Ashton,” Kubiak told reporters. “…I don’t know the play snap percentage, but you look at Christian McCaffrey, his play snap percentage is high. So, the great backs, they don’t want to come off the field.”

Jeanty answered his new coach’s call, telling reporters that he didn’t want to come off the field if he didn’t have to. In his heavy usage as a rookie, Jeanty averaged an underwhelming 3.7 yards per carry, but that lack of efficiency wasn’t all on his shoulders. As part of the league’s worst rushing attack in Las Vegas last year, Jeanty was stopped for zero or fewer runs on 26.7% of his carries, per McFadden, and his 639 yards after contact are the most in the past 20 seasons for rushers who didn’t reach 1,000 yards.

The Raiders worked hard to ensure they were putting an improved offense around Jeanty, and they’ll hope that doing so will allow him to reap more production for his efforts. To increase his durability and endurance, Jeanty has incorporated boxing into his cardio routine, and he’s started film study on the likes of McCaffrey and new division-rival Kenneth Walker III (the last leading rusher in a Kubiak-led offense). Reaching that level of usage will require Jeanty to play a bigger part in the passing game, as well.

Kubiak knows the lofty expectations the Raiders had when drafting Jeanty the year before he arrived, and he knows the expectations Jeanty has for himself. He, therefore, sees it as his responsibility to get those expectations out of Jeanty and wants to continue to “challenge” and “pressure” him to get him there. Kubiak did relent a bit, reasserting that “it’s important to have a quality second back,” but in his eyes, “the best player has got to play,” and he wants to get that best player “on the field as much as (they) can.”