Oakland Raiders: 3 Training Camp Positional Battles to keep an eye on
By Sanjit T.
Running Back
Josh Jacobs is the young kid who was a first round pick, so it’s almost guaranteed that he will be our starter?
Not so fast. Although I think eventually he might take over the full-time role. But for now, we have to understand he is a young kid in his first year.
And honestly, we have to consider each offensive situation. For example, who is the first down back? Third down back? Short distance back? 2 split backs? There are so many different offensive situations. Lets look this over.
On first down, the primary back could be Doug Martin, Jacobs, or Chris Warren. People might be sleeping on Martin, but he averaged 4.2 yards per carry last year. Chris Warren averaged 5 yards per carry on 58 carries in the preseason as well.
Yes I know it’s preseason, but he might still have a chance to get some first down carries.
The first down back will probably end up getting the second down carries as well, and be the lead back. Last year it was Marshawn Lynch before his injury. After him, Martin was the Raiders go-to guy. This year, of course, he still has a shot at the job.
The next battle will be the 3rd down back. Jalen Richard had 68 catches and had a huge workload on passing downs last year. But with Jacobs in the mix, that will probably go down. Jalen Richard and Josh Jacobs will battle it out for the 3rd down snaps.
Short down distance should be Chris Warren or Doug Martin. This will be interesting, Gruden can choose to hand it off to a full back instead and not keep one of these guys on the roster.
The last battle will be interesting. This is something that’s new to the Raiders offense and wasn’t implemented last year. This is a two split back look. The Saints did this a lot last year.
They put Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram on each side of Drew Brees, who is in the shotgun formation. They’d eventually put Alvin Kamara in motion, or hand him the ball with Mark Ingram lead blocking.
Ideally Josh Jacobs, who is known for his versatility, will be the back who goes into motion and block. With Jalen Richard or Martin getting the handoff.