The Las Vegas Raiders‘ ground game remains a glaring weakness, as shown in their 41-24 defeat to the Washington Commanders on September 21 at Northwest Stadium.
Las Vegas managed just 93 rushing yards in total, with rookie Ashton Jeanty accounting for 63 of them. The 21-year-old carried the ball 17 times, averaging 3.7 yards per attempt. While it’s a small sign of progress, the Silver and Black will need far more production on the ground if they hope to find consistent success.
After the loss to the Commanders, ESPN’s Ryan McFadden pointed out that Jeanty was hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on 11 of his 17 carries against Washington. That trend has carried through the season, with Jeanty taking contact at or behind the line on 57 percent of his rushes (27 of 47) so far.
In response to the information that McFadden provided, the New York Post’s NFL reporter Ryan Dunleavy sent a warning to the Raiders not to follow the path of the New York Giants with Saquon Barkley.
“This is the old Saquon and Giants story,” Dunleavy wrote on X. “[The] Raiders should fix it before 5 years go by, and everyone blames the [running back].”
Ashton Jeanty Gets Support From Raiders Teammate
Jeanty is just three games into his NFL career and is still settling into life in the pros. The Raiders‘ 2025 first-round pick is figuring out which parts of his college success can carry over. In the meantime, veteran quarterback Geno Smith has been sharing advice with his young teammate.
“Just sticking with it,” Smith told reporters postgame. “It’s not college—I mean, that’s the reality. It’s a big boy league, and it’s going to be tough every week. There are no cupcakes. There are no lollypops. It’s big boy football, week in and week out. We’ve got to help him all around him. We’ve got to be better so that he can go out there and show what he can do, because he can do it.
He showed it in the NFL. He can do it. He’s running guys over, making guys miss. We’ve just got to open up space for him. I’ve got to get some better checks, get some better run calls, so that he can go out there and showcase what he’s capable of.”
Raiders Know They Have a Run Problem
Three weeks into the NFL season, the Raiders are still searching for consistency in their running game. Against the Commanders, however, they flashed some promise. Following that performance, Smith emphasized the need to get the run going early, relying on Jeanty and the rest of the running backs to help ease the burden on the offense.
“Extremely important [to establish the run],” Smith added. “But more importantly, we got to dominate the line of scrimmage — we got to own the line of scrimmage. That’s football in a nutshell. If you can win the line of scrimmage, you can win a lot of games.
“If you can win the line of scrimmage, control the turnover battle, get first downs, convert in the red zone, be great in situations — you can win a lot of games. So yeah, it’s a lot of things that we can do better, but I look forward to getting it right.”
Raiders Get Concerning Giants Comparison Over Ashton Jeanty