Despite suffering an ankle sprain in practice before the season, Ashton Jeanty came out in Week 1 and played very well for the Las Vegas Raiders. He rushed for 102 yards against the Miami Dolphins and caught two touchdown passes.
Since then, he’s mostly been ineffective. He is averaging 3.4 yards per carry so far, which is worse than the 3.7 yards per carry he averaged last season.
This has led to speculation that Jeanty’s ankles are more banged up than he’d like to admit. The Raiders raised some eyebrows when they revealed that Jeanty was limited in Thursday’s practice due to a foot injury.
It has now been revealed that he wasn’t even practicing during Friday’s session.
He was limited with ankle and foot injuries at Thursday’s practice. The foot injury was a new addition to the injury report.
That’s not a good sign that he’ll be able to play against the New England Patriots in Week 4. Now, the Raiders could be giving him a practice off so he has more time to recover before the game. He doesn’t seem too concerned about missing time.
That said, it might not be the worst idea to give him some time to further recover his feet and ankles. He hasn’t been as effective as the Raiders had hoped, and offensive line play is part of the reason for that, but he hasn’t seemed to have the same burst this season. The Raiders decided to list him as questionable for the Patriots game, but he is traveling with the team.
Jeanty Admits He Needs to Improve
Jeanty is a hard worker and has shown signs of being an effective running back. It hasn’t yielded great results yet. He knows that he’s got to improve his play.
“I think we’ve just got to be better. Simple as that,” Jeanty said. “Make the plays that are out there. … It starts with us. Starts with me. Got to break tackles and make bigger plays when they’re available.”
Beyond running the ball, Jeanty would also like to be more of a force in pass protection.
“I think I’ve done a solid job, but just being better in pass protection, and then in the run game, just making better reads,” Jeanty said.
Jeanty has been a sneaky good receiving threat for the Raiders. He has 19 catches on the season already. He’s excited that the team trusts him to make plays in the passing game.
“I feel like that was an area of my game that I didn’t get to utilize as much, so coming in with this new scheme and being more involved in the pass game is great,” Jeanty added.
Klint Kubiak Working Hard to Fix Run Game
Head coach Klint Kubiak isn’t a pass-happy play caller. He wants to run the ball. The fact that the Raiders are 3-1 without the running game coming alive is promising, but they need to fix things soon.
Kubiak assured fans that he’s working hard to figure out how to get the run game going.
“Going back to that first game [against Miami], just as a whole unit, we played better,” Kubiak said. “We were more efficient running the football, and that’s something we got to get back to. So, it’s something that we’re diligent about.”
Raiders Get Concerning Ashton Jeanty Update Ahead of Patriots Game