Former Raiders O-lineman Steve Wisniewski knows a little bit about running the football at the NFL level, and he talked this week about what has gone wrong with the Raiders’ running game over the first three weeks of the season.
Wisniewski said it’s more challenging to build a physical brand of football, particularly in the running game, with the current practice rules in place, but said he also thinks offensive coordinator Chip Kelly could be a little more creative in the ways he has been getting Ashton Jeanty involved in the offense.
“What I think they have to do… I think we have to be a little bit more creative in getting the ball to Jeanty, whether it’s a pitch, whether it’s a flip, let’s stretch the perimeter, let’s put them in motion, let’s flare passes out of the backfield,” Wisniewski said on Raider Nation Radio’s JT the Brick Show.
“Anything you can do to get him the ball other than straight up the middle. And I don’t feel like it’s a time for panic. I just think it’s a time to be creative and get back to basics in practice.”
“We hate to say it, but it does take some time,” Wisniewski continued. “Kelly is a quality offensive coordinator. no dummy. He’s going to get creative. Ashton Jeanty, we all feel great about him, and we know this line is working their butt off. So I feel like we just got to get creative and get back to the basics.”
It will be interesting to see how the Raiders try to run the ball in week 4 against the Bears, because Wisniewski isn’t the only former player that been hinting that Kelly’s offense might need to make a few adjustments.
These were Lincoln Kennedy’s comments on the Raiders’ running game earlier in the week…
“I don’t like the point of inception. What I mean by that is I do not like them going out of pistol, which is a shotgun quarterback with a running back three yards behind,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast.
“The reason why is with that running back three yards behind the quarterback, who’s standing at five yards in shotgun, that puts [the running back] eight yards off of the line of scrimmage. You have eight yards that you have to catch up before you get to the line of scrimmage. There are so many things that can happen. More times that we’ve seen than not, it’s been penetration.” Kennedy continued.
“When the Raiders have been able to [win]… the line of scrimmage, they’ve had successful runs. But when they’ve had penetration or when you have running backs, the moment they get the handoff, having to make the cut, making a guy miss here, making a guy miss there, for whatever, miscommunication, guys shooting the gaps, penetration, however you want to break it down. It does not work.”
x: @raidersbeat
Yes but the Raider coaches know better than the men who spent their careers in the trenches.
To be fair a current NFL coach probably should know more about football in 2025 than a guy who hasn’t played in 25 years. The problem is it doesn’t look like some members of the Raiders staff do.
Is Pete Carroll even watching Meredith missing blocks and blocking the wrong guy????
Geno Smith stinks, 7 picks through 4 weeks. Raiders paying him over 30 million a year. Raiders should have won today in spite of Smith. Leads the league in picks just like last year. We are better off playing the rookie to see what he’s got so we know whether to tank or not because we are going nowhere with Smith. I don’t understand the call on third down at the end, 40 secs on clock with a timeout and we don’t go for the first, horrible play calling.
I hated the call, too. I’m fine with giving Jeanty the ball considering the games both he and Geno had played up to that point. But why out of shotgun? Was it an RPO? Given the fact that Jeanty went into the game as one of only 2 RBs in the league who was averaging negative yards before contact…. Why a play call that gives Chicago’s defenders more time to whoop the Raiders offensive line, and takes Jeanty more yards to get to the marker?
Since I was listening on the radio and didn’t see the play, I have to ask. Was it just one Raiders lineman who got beat or another 2025 special where multiple guys are in the Raiders backfield before Jeanty even receives the carry, and at least one Raider lineman is just standing there having not made contact with anyone?
We should have gave Carlson a better chance at the field goal. Chicago still had 3 timeouts, we had plenty of time and had just taken a timeout and that’s the best play we could come up with just to lose another yard, I just don’t get it.
I didn’t get a chance to watch today as the game wasn’t being broadcast here in Mexico, and I didn’t feel like going to the casino, so I went old school and listened on the radio. But it sounded like the Raiders did some of the things Wiz suggested and Kennedy suggested. Also, they made quite a big deal on the radio broadcast about Jeanty going back to his Michael Myers stance and the possibility that this allowed him to read defenses and his blocks a bit easier. Who knows. Also, why isn’t Wiz in the Hall of Fame. Am I crazy for thinking that? I just remember him perenially being one of the best interior offensive linemen in football over a long career.
I don’t know whether it was Carroll or Chip who made the decision to so obviously play for FGs on their last 2 drives, but boy did they tighten up. They just seemed totally satisfied to let their fate rest on a 50+ yard FG attempt with more than 40 seconds to go and Chicago with a pocket full of timeouts. On the other hand, Geno Smith was mostly terrible, Carlson is good, and you don’t expect the kick to get blocked.
Expect a lot of hatred and recriminations for Geno Smith and the way the the Raiders “brain trust” handled the QB position this offseason. I’ll be joining the dogpile
Steve Wisniewski is among our greatest players to ever play this game, including that of all our HOF players. (I have “Wiz” as tied with Gene Upshaw as our greatest Guard ever. ) If Wisniewski said it who can argue it, it is just simply so.
Raider On Wiz and thank you for dedicated years, no one worked harder.
West Side
Since 1975
RN
Hey Pete Carroll and Mark Davis: Do you think it would be a good idea to have Steve
Wisniewski, and Lincoln Kennedy on your offensive line staff?