ESPN report and Raiders’ HC disagree on Jeanty’s status for week 6
According to an ESPN report this week, the Raiders are considering giving Ashton Jeanty a week off to rest his ankle and foot injuries.
“The Raiders have internally discussed giving Jeanty a week off to heal at some point,” ESPN’s Dan Graziano wrote in the report on Wednesday.
“He does not want to take a week off and has pushed to play through the injuries. But the Raiders’ bye isn’t until Week 13, and there may come a week in the near future where they decide the best thing for Jeanty and for the team is to rest him.”
But according to head coach Klint Kubiak, there are some holes in Graziano’s report.
Kubiak on said on Wednesday that Jeanty is starting to “feel a lot better” and in no uncertain terms, added that Jeanty will be playing against the Bills on Sunday.
It was a little unusual to have such conflicting reports in a short period of time, especially considering Graziano is one of the more respected insiders in the industry.
Assuming Graziano isn’t making up stories, and it’s a safe bet that he was told something along the lines of what he reported, there have been conversations in the Raiders building about shutting down Jeanty for the week.
But why would Kubiak send such a different message from the podium just a few hours later?
Could this be a similar situation to what happened with Brock Bowers in week 1?
Kubiak took some heat before the season opener for implying that Brock Bowers was going to play against the Dolphins when he had just had meniscus surgery the day before.
At the time, it wasn’t public information that Bowers’ knee had been operated on, and there was almost no chance Bowers was going to play in a game four days later.
That is information Kubiak surely would have known at the time.
If we’ve learned anything about Kubiak, we know he is a strong believer in keeping injury information quiet, and it’s fair to wonder if there is more credibility to Graziano’s story than Kubiak acknowledged on Wednesday.
If the Bills knew on Wednesday that they don’t have to prepare for Jeanty, who has still been very good in pass protection, would the Buffalo coaching staff be able to prepare differently for Sunday?
Raiders star definitely dealing with an injury
As former Raider great Lincoln Kennedy pointed out this week, there is definitely something going on with Jeanty from a health standpoint.
The concerns around Jeanty’s ankle and foot injuries aren’t just internet and television clickbait.
“I don’t think Ashton is 100 percent, but I can’t speak for the young man,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show on Wednesday.
“But I do know this, when it comes to a gametime decision, which it was last weekend, that shows me he’s not 100 percent. So that tells you he’s not 100 percent. So, if you’re Coach Kubiak, you might have to make that hard parent decision. You got to sit down for a game.”
Just trusting the eyes, it might end up being better for Jeanty’s long-term outlook if he hasn’t been at 100 percent for the last month.
The alternative, as Richie Incognito pointed out, would be that he isn’t quite the no. 1 running back the Raiders drafted him to be…
“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 said on the Initial Contact podcast.
“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…”
x: @raidersbeat
