Early practices only increasing expectations for Raiders rookie running back

Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty (2) carries the ball after a pass reception during organized team activities (OTA) at the Las Vegas Raiders Headquarters/Intermountain Health Performance Center in Henderson Wednesday, May 21, 2025. Photo by: Steve Marcus

The passing game is almost always the focus of NFL teams’ initial, pre-training camp practices as part of offseason activities in late May and early June.

Full-contact sessions are not yet permitted, and there’s only so much that can be gleaned about rushing attacks with the players in shorts and helmets without pads.

That’s not stopping anyone that’s been around the Raiders’ practices this year from trying. The 2025 Raiders have approached their first few times on the field together in the usual fashion, with 11-on-11 periods near-exclusively featuring new quarterback Geno Smith dropping back and scanning the field against a rebuilt starting defensive secondary.

But attention amps up and heads turn on the rare occasions when he hands off. The cameras during portions open to the media similarly are more drawn towards running back drills than the quarterbacks throwing.

It’s all because of rookie running back Ashton Jeanty, the Raiders’ No. 6 overall draft pick whom they expect to emerge as the focal point of the offense under new coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.

“He’s doing great, he really is,” Carroll said of Jeanty. “He’s right on point with everything that we’re doing. He’s studying really hard. He’s been really diligent about all aspects. There’s nothing that he doesn’t find important.”

The 21-year-old Heisman Trophy runner-up in his final season at Boise State University is immediately tasked with turning around what’s been a moribund Las Vegas running game. The Raiders were last in the NFL a season ago in averaging 3.6 yards per rush attempt.

While that was a low moment for the franchise, its inability to pick up yards on the ground was nothing out of the ordinary. In the five seasons since moving Las Vegas, the Raiders have ranked better than 20th in yards per carry only once—in 2022 when then running back Josh Jacobs won the rushing title with a career year where he gained 1,653 yards. 

That was the second-largest tally in franchise history—behind Marcus Allen’s 1,759-yard Most Valuable Player campaign in 1985—but Jeanty believes he can threaten the mark in his first season.

He recently told CBS Sports that his goal for his rookie season was 1,500 rushing yards, a bar just eight players in NFL history have topped, including none since the Dallas Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott in 2016.

“I mean, I wouldn’t say I’d get 2,600 yards again (like at Boise State) right off the rip,” Jeanty told reporters. “But definitely just be a great asset to this team, a great teammate and just help bring home wins each and every week.”

A great deal of hype surrounded Jeanty before he became the highest drafted running back since reigning Super Bowl champion/Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley went No. 2 overall to the New York Giants in 2018.

He opened the favorite to win the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award in the betting market, currently sitting at odds as low as +250 (i.e. risking $100 to win $250).

But excitement among the Raiders has grown further with him on the practice field.

“It’s only been a couple weeks with him but I love the kid,” said Raiders’ edge rusher and face of the franchise Maxx Crosby. “He’s a hell of a worker, hell of a player and I’m excited to be teammates with him.”

Jeanty’s footwork, cuts and sprints up the field have mesmerized with their fluidity in non-padded practices, and those aren’t even considered his best attributes.

Kelly, a decorated college and NFL coach for the last 35 years, said he had perhaps never seen a harder-to-tackle prospect coming into his rookie season. Just wait until he can also show off that part of his game in silver and black come the preseason in August.

“I’ve got so many different ways to describe how I run, but I think my favorite [was] somebody said that I was like a rolling ball of knives,” Jeanty said.

This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.