There’s a new narrative regarding Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty, and it doesn’t look good at the moment
The Las Vegas Raiders may have an issue on their hands with Ashton Jeanty and Mike Washington Jr.
The Las Vegas Raiders continue to struggle to close out games. This time, they lost 33-30 to the Buffalo Bills. Sure, that’s impressive considering where the Bills are as a franchise and where the Raiders are in their rebuild. But at some point they have to figure out how to win games.
And it would help if the run game was better. Against the Kansas City Chiefs, they rushed for 72 yards on 26 attempts. Against the New England Patriots, they had just 38 on 18 attempts. Against the Bills, a known bad defense, they rushed for 60 yards on 20 attempts. That’s just unacceptable. And some of it is coming back to Ashton Jeanty.
Sure, you could say the offensive line hasn’t been the best in the run game, and that’s partially true. Then again, it feels like when Mike Washington Jr. gets a carry, he always breaks a big one loose. In this game, Washington had 43 rushing yards on nine carries. Jeanty had 22 on ten carries. Granted, Washington had an 18-yard draw play when the lane opened up. Jeanty didn’t see much of that. Still, Washington made the play.
So, now there’s a narrative that’s beginning about whether Jeanty is even better than Washington. Or if Jeanty is still injured and he and the team aren’t addressing it the way they should. Either way, something is happening, and it doesn’t look good.
Raiders still have to find a way to get Mike Washington Jr. involved more
The Raiders did find a way to get their rookie running back in the game, though. They even had him out there in the pass game. And that changes everything. Before, he was usually only out there on running plays, and it started to become a bit telegraphed. He had his biggest reception of the season on Sunday for seven yards.
That doesn’t seem like much, but it keeps the defense on its toes. When you have Jeanty out there, and you’re running and passing to him, but Washington usually only comes in when it’s time to run, the defense can easily start to guess what you’re doing.
“He gave us a spark; he did some good stuff for us,” Kubiak told reporters when asked about running back Mike Washington Jr.
He’s a player with very high potential. And he can be a weapon for the Raiders. But he can’t do any of that if they don’t put him on the field. Then again, that means taking your No. 6 overall pick from last season, Jeanty, off the field. So, Vegas has to figure out how to balance that better while also riding the hot hand in the running game.
