With fantasy football drafts in full swing, one of the interesting conversations of late has been the draft position of Ashton Jeanty.
There was a lot to like about Jeanty a month ago, and that still might be the case, but a sprained ankle could affect him early in the season and from a fantasy football standpoint, there might be an even bigger situation to monitor beyond his health.
For months, we have heard about how Jeanty is going to have a Christian McCaffrey type role this year, despite the fact that head coach Klint Kubiak is known for favoring two-back systems. But with the way Mike Washington Jr. played in the preseason, it’s hard to imagine Jeanty getting 80 percent of the carries this year, the way several beat writers have projected.
With what we knew about Washington three months ago, a huge role for Jeanty made sense, but it feels like Kubiak might be starting to lean into more of a running back rotation.
“I think that they’re both going to prepare to play a lot of football,” Kubiak said last week of Jeanty and Washington.
“As these games unfold, you react to the game. I think we’ve got two guys that we’re really excited about. We’ve got some younger guys that we’re really excited about, too… They’ve just got to make the most of every rep that they get,” Kubiak continued.
“I’m not making any promises on percentages of play time. It’s when you get to a game sometimes a guy who think is gonna have five carries has 20. Sometimes the guy that you think is just going to be a scat protection back is in there blocking six-man protection for 20 reps. We’ve got to get ready for them to play all three phases.”
Raiders running backs heading toward a timeshare?
ESPN’s Ryan McFadden is around the team almost every day and McFadden recognized the shift in the way Kubiak is talking about the Raiders’ running back room.
“In May, Kubiak talked about using Jeanty as a bell cow running back. It looks like Washington has changed the staff’s perspective of the RB room,” McFadden posted on X.
Aside from Kubiak’s comments, it also worth noting how well Washington performed in the preseason.
The Raiders didn’t draft Washington in the fourth round to leave him on the sideline and now that he has blown away expectations in training camp and preseason, why not take some of the load away from Jeanty?
Raiders had a second-round draft grade on Washington?
According to Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter, there were three running backs the Raiders were targeting in the middle of the draft, and they were especially high on Washington.
“They thought… that Mike Washington would have went a lot higher than where he went,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast in April.
“[The] Raiders picked him at pick 122 [in the] fourth round. I can tell you right now, they had a second round grade on Washington. They loved him. They loved Price. They loved Kaelon Black. They loved Mike Washington and… he is fast. He is a wrecking ball and when you look at the one-two punch of him and Ashton Jeanty… and remember that’s the Klint Kubiak way.”
x: @raidersbeat
I love Kubiak & his approach to the offense and this is further proof that unless you’re getting a Saqueon Barkley in the top 5 you draft a premium position or HOF talent @ a non premium position. Telesco was right
The AJ pick was just flat out terrible for the team at that time. He’s not a generational talent, he’s good not great. And apparently already getting injured on routine actions. So far Spytek aka Tom’s bud hasn’t drafted well. It’s early from last year and obviously early from this ones but the types of prospects aren’t high-end except one.
As far as Washington he looks and seems like that one. It’s early but the results were good against other 2nd stringers or below. The chances for success behind one of the worst OLines isn’t high for him or AJ.
It’s at least comforting to know that they waited until the 4th even though they had a 2nd round grade on him. But it makes you wonder how many 2nd rd grades they had in total.
BENGALS WAIVED LB ERIC GENTRY! GET HIM!