Do Jeanty’s struggles go beyond bad blocking?
The Raiders have been one of the league’s surprising teams this year, but not all of their surprises have been good surprises.
The 3-0 start was something no one was predicting and Kirk Cousins being second in the league in passing touchdowns (11) after five weeks might be even more surprising.
Maybe the biggest negative surprise of the season, though, has been the ineffectiveness of Ashton Jeanty and the Raiders’ running game.
Through five games, Jeanty is on pace to finish the season with fewer rushing yards and a lower YPC that he did a year ago, and maybe more concerning has been the fact that he hasn’t looked an explosive as a runner as he did a year ago.
Some have pointed to the offensive line as the major factor in the Raiders’ struggles to run the ball, and it’s fair to say the offensive line has not been good. But there is also growing concern that Jeanty either isn’t healthy or, even worse, might not be the running back the Raiders drafted him to be.
Ideally, Jeanty just needs to get back to full strength, but former Raider offensive lineman Richie Incognito said this week that he isn’t sold on Jeanty as a true bell cow running back.
“I think they got to go back to the drawing board and really look at… we have to get this kid Washington more touches. He is special,” Incognito said on the Initial Contact podcast.
“I saw Dylan Laube in there yesterday getting some touches. He got some yards, but Ashton Jeanty… I am not sold on him being our bell cow back. I am not sold on him being our number one. I think the conversation starts with the offensive line up front. These guys have been terrible on the run game, and they’ve been terrible on the run game for a couple of seasons now.”
Incognito went on to say it isn’t necessarily Jeanty’s physical traits that have him most concerned.
“In the Miami Dolphins game this year, it looked like, ‘Oh my god, this guy is finally here. We’re going to be physical. We’re going to run him downhill. We’re going to get the screen game going to him. We’re going to get the ball to him in the pass game. This guy is a game changer,” Incognito continued on Jeanty.
“Now he’s banged up. Offensive line’s not playing well. But for me, with Jeanty, it really comes down to vision and feel. For me, it’s tough when you have penetration and it’s tough when you have free runners. That’s on the offensive line, right? But with Jeanty, it just seems like he’s running with his eyes closed. And we talked about it last week. He’s not very elusive in the backfield…”
“You hand him the ball and you say, ‘Jeanty, you’re running through the two hole, the four hole, the six hole.’ He is literally just sprinting towards that hole, and it doesn’t matter if he’s running into a defender, if he’s running into an offensive lineman. That’s where he’s putting that ball.”
Raiders contemplating sitting Jeanty in week 6
An ESPN report on Wednesday said the Raiders are considering resting Jeanty against the Bills on Sunday, but head coach Klint Kubiak was pretty adamant at his press conference later in the day that Jeanty will be in the lineup.
It will be interesting to see how that situation plays out because Kubiak hasn’t necessarily been the most reliable source when it comes to injury reports and gametime availability.
Beyond the short term, the hope of every Raiders fan is that Jeanty just needs to get back to full strength, and he’ll return to being a dynamic playmaker when he has opportunities.
Unfortunately, because of the team’s poor offensive line play, there haven’t been many opportunities for Jeanty to make plays… but it’s also true that he hasn’t done much with the few opportunities he has been given.
x: @raidersbeat
