Oakland Raiders 2019 53-man roster: Running Back
The cutdown deadline across NFL roster’s was set at Saturday 4 p.m ET. The Raiders have since then, cut players, waived players and claimed players. Here we will take a look at what the running back department will look like as week one of the regular season approaches.
Competition
Running Back
This summer a significant amount of attention was put towards the developmental process of first-round running back Josh Jacobs. The Raiders have gone all in on Jacobs, spending high draft capital on their future every-down-back, hoping to strike gold with the talented runner.
From the get go it was apparent that Jacobs would receive all the first-team reps throughout training camp. Although, the other running backs on the roster didn’t quite have their designated roles penciled in from the beginning of summer.
Jalen Richard, DeAndre Washington, Doug Martin, Mack Brown, and James Butler all came into camp wanting to prove to the coaching staff why they belong. Though, Richard is the best pass-catching running back on the roster, so his role on the team was largely established versus the other backups.
With it coming down between Washington, Martin, Brown, and Butler for one spot, the preseason games were a large indication of who would stick around. Martin suffered an injury, placing him on injured reserve, leaving the competition battle among three others.
All three (Washington, Brown, and Butler) received a multitude of touches during preseason play, showing how their skill set can be implemented into Jon Gruden’s second-year offense.
Fullback
The Raiders entered training camp with two fullback’s on the roster. Keith Smith and undrafted free-agent Alec Ingold would be given the task to battle it out for the starting role.
Smith suffered a knee injury early on, giving Ingold all the reps at fullback until Smith would fully recovery. Smith would begin physical activity in the later stages of the preseason, but ultimately would have a large uphill battle to climb as Ingold had impressed many of the coaches during Smith’s absence.