Buy or Sell: Oakland Raiders vs. San Diego Chargers

The rookie running backs did enough to chip into Latavius Murray’s playing time.

Sell.

With Latavius out thanks to a toe injury, it was a big opportunity for both DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard to perform in his absence, and possibly eat away at some of Murray’s workload.

Did either running back do enough to justify that? Eh, probably not.

Jack Del Rio said as much himself post-game, that the team will “welcome him back”, (referring to Murray) when he is once again healthy.

Washington out-snapped Richard 37 to 23 (a 19 percent difference) but received only one more carry, and caught one less pass. So DeAndre was trusted as the pass-blocker when needed.

But DeAndre underwhelmed on the ground, totaling just 23 yards on 9 carries, which is an average of 2.6 yards per carry. His longest gain of the day was 8 yards. But he had an okay day as a pass-catcher — 5 receptions for 29 yards.

Richard was better as a ball-carrier with 31 yards on 8 carries, good for an average of 3.9 yards per carry. But that mark is still below what Latavius averages on the year (4.3).

Where Richard impressed, though, was as a receiver. He caught 6 passes for 66 yards, and was used on a couple of routes not typically ran by running backs. So if anything, maybe Richard earned some work as a third-down back going forward, but that would be it.

So many fans might not like to hear it, but the starting job still belongs to Latavius Murray.