Ashton

Jeanty

Mike Washington, Jr. in Week 8 against the Jets took over as the team’s lead rusher, logging 25 carries to just two carries for Ashton Jeanty. While Kubiak said after the game that Jeanty would remain a part of the offense, it’s clear the Raiders are willing to experiment with backfield touches. “You see where your team is at and who’s playing the best ball at the time. It’s a 17-game regular season where things change every week. They’ve been changing at guard, they change up front defensively, they change at corner,” Kubiak said. “That’s the NFL. We have a young roster and we’re going to give guys opportunities and see what fits us best. But your 11, whether you’re playing really well or not playing well at all, it’s always going to change a little bit.” The Raiders through Week 8 rank dead last in EPA per rush and second to last in rushing success rate. Jeanty should remain viable as long as he’s the team’s primary pass catcher out of the backfield. Jeanty ranks fifth among all RBs in expected fantasy points per game.

Jeanty was benched as the Raiders’ early-down back, getting out-carried 25-2 by Mike Washington Jr. For his part, Washington was not effective, churning up just 3.3 yards per carry and getting stoned on a bevy of goal-line handles. Speaking afterward, coach Klint Kubiak said the move was his call but that "(Jeanty) is still going to be a big part of our team.” Jeanty made waves during the week when he said the Jets could not tackle. Rather than let the struggling second-year back prove his theory on the field, the Raiders made the takedown themselves for the Jets. While it’s clear Jeanty is now in a true timeshare, we do also take Kubiak at his word that Jeanty will remain a “big part” of the team, almost certainly with double-digit carries more weeks than not. The question is if he can keep catching enough passes to hold RB2 status. Washington is now the preferred short-yardage back, but his failures in Sunday’s highest-leverage spots could keep the door ajar for Jeanty.

Among the least efficient rushers in the game, Jeanty again struggled to get anything going on the ground behind a middling Vegas offensive line. He did almost all of his damage through the air, turning eight targets into 61 yards and a late score in garbage time. He ran a route on 20 of the team’s 35 drop backs against the Rams and ranked second among Raiders pass catchers in targets. Mike Washington had six carries on the day. Jeanty, with at least six targets in six of his seven games this season, can maintain RB2 status as long as he’s catching passes out of the backfield. He gets the Jets in Week 8.

Dang. This suggests Washington suffered one or both injuries yesterday in practice. He is firmly in the questionable camp and may have only a long shot at suiting up in Week 7 against the Rams. Without him, Ashton Jeanty should handle a solid workload. Dylan Laube could end up serving as the No. 2 running back.

Jeanty, who is dealing with a foot/ankle injury, wasn’t effective on the ground, but that didn’t stop him from scoring his first rushing touchdown of the season. Jeanty punched in a one-yard score in the first quarter of Sunday’s game to give the Raiders an early 7-3 lead, but averaged a disappointing 2.2 YPC overall. He did manage a solid 4-36-0 receiving line on six targets, with two of his four receptions coming on the Raiders’ third drive of the game. Jeanty appeared on 15 more snaps than Mike Washington and out-touched him 14 to 10. While he continues to struggle from an efficiency standpoint, Jeanty’s volume will make him a low-end RB1 next week against the Rams.

The Raiders’ starting running back is good to go for what should be a fantasy-friendly game environment. The Raiders encouragingly stopped listing Jeanty with an ankle injury this week. Hopefully, his remaining plantar fasciitis issue subsides before long as well. Jeanty is a low-end RB1 in Week 6.

The quotes read a tad bit more enthusiastically than Jeanty did while speaking to media members at his locker, but this is still good to hear. Jeanty has been dealing with an ankle injury for a long time, but the team took that injury off the weekly practice report this week. He is now listed only with the foot injury after experiencing “a flare-up of plantar fasciitis” last Friday. Jeanty is a low-end RB1 against the Bills this week.

Jeanty’s previous ankle designation was removed from the injury report and he was a full practice participant on Wednesday. His practice participation lines up with Raiders coach Klint Kubiak saying the 22-year-old running back was starting to “feel a lot better.” Though there were rumors of the Raiders resting Jeanty for a week, he is trending to play in Week 6 against the Bills.

Kubiak also shot down the idea of the Raiders resting Jeanty for a week, despite it being reported earlier today that the Raiders were considering giving him a week off to recover at some point. Jeanty has been dreadfully inefficient this year, averaging a meager 3.3 yards per carry, though the team’s subpar offensive line also deserves some of the blame. For fantasy purposes, his workload has been the big draw. He is averaging 22 touches per game through five weeks. Even if the foot and ankle injuries continue to bother him, Jeanty has to be treated as a mid-range RB2.

Most of Jeanty’s production against New England came on a 31-yard catch and run in the third quarter. Battling through foot and ankle injuries, Jeanty looked hobbled from the start and struggled to break tackles or outrun Patriots defenders to the edge. Most Raiders starters rested in the fourth quarter of a lopsided loss. Jeanty still doesn’t have a rushing touchdown on the season and hasn’t had 100 rushing yards in a game since Week 1 against the Dolphins. Until Jeanty is fully healthy he probably won’t provide much in the way of upside, including next week against a decent Buffalo run defense.