Mike Washington Jr.

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.”

After spending the No. 6 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to select Boise State star running back Ashton Jeanty, the Raiders still finished the season with the fewest rushing yards in the league. Some of that can be attributed to offensive line play, and some of that can be attributed to the utter lack of offense around him. This is part of the reason that Las Vegas used another valued draft pick this year to select Arkansas rusher Mike Washington Jr. in the fourth round.

According to Ryan McFadden of ESPN, new head coach Klint Kubiak saw Jeanty’s 266 carries in 2025 — in comparison to Raheem Mostert‘s 22, Zamir White‘s 12, and Dylan Laube‘s seven — and decided that a two-RB system could really benefit the offense by lessening the load on Jeanty’s shoulders. Obviously, the addition of No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza is meant to add some balance to the offense, as well, but as Mendoza either learns on the job or watches veteran Kirk Cousins start until he’s ready, that balance may not be immediately available.

In the meantime, Las Vegas will hope it can rely on Washington to spell Jeanty and provide a change of pace for the offense. Jeanty is a smaller, stouter back, measuring in around 5-foot-8 and 211 pounds. He lacks elite top-end speed but has great burst to get to top speed quickly. Jeanty holds immense strength and, starting so low to the ground, can out-leverage most would-be tacklers to break through arm tackles and weak attempts. He can be elusive along the line with patient footwork and is a reliable blocker and receiver from the backfield.

Washington is a bigger back at just over six feet tall and 225 pounds. He also owns that top-end speed that Jeanty lacks, posting a position-best 4.33-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine. While that top-end speed is great in the open field, Washington’s limited burst can hurt his short-field production when trying to beat defenders around the edge. Despite being bigger than Jeanty and possessing a similar strength, Washington’s upright running style takes away from his ability to finish runs with violence and break tackles with power. He is a strong pass catcher — mostly in the screen game — but his pass blocking will need development at the next level.

When putting the two side by side, it’s easy to see how they complement each other and how effective they might be if they could fuse their best traits into one body, but it will be up to Kubiak to decipher how best to mix the backs in his 2-RB system. It’s a challenge that Kubiak welcomed, though, and Washington is in prime position to fulfill his coach’s desires in adding another element to the offense that should help Jeanty blossom.