All things considered, Ashton Jeanty having the success that he did as a rookie last season was a testament to his talent. He didn't reach 1,000 yards on the ground, but 10 total touchdowns and over 1,300 yards from scrimmage in a barely functioning Las Vegas Raiders offense was remarkable.
The arrival of Klint Kubiak as head coach brings the practical guarantee of a good Raiders offense, which automatically raises Jeanty's ceiling. Kubiak has talked about having a second back who takes on reps, and a more efficient offense puts that in play in the effort to manage Jeanty's workload.
But when it comes down to it, Jeanty is no worse than the Raiders' second-best offensive player and taking him off the field a lot doesn't makes sense. Any addition in free agency or the draft should not be a serious threat to a workhorse-level load. Fantasy football managers don't have to worry about it.
One fantasy football outlet inexplicably is, however.
Las Vegas Raiders star Ashton Jeanty's fantasy football value should be intact despite new RB addition
Entering the draft, after not singing anyone in free agency, it was all but a certainty that the Raiders would draft a running back. In the fourth round, after trading up a bit to pick No. 122, Arkansas running back Mike Washington Jr. was added to the backfield mix.
Nathan Jahnke of Pro Football Focus named 20 fantasy football winners and losers from the 2026 draft. The Raiders' top three wide receivers (Jalen Nailor, Tre Tucker and Jack Bech) were tabbed as a winner, which makes sense, given a better quarterback situation.
Washington Jr. was on this list as well, based on having a better path to immediate fantasy value than the two running backs drafted before him (Kaelon Black and Jonah Coleman). And by having Washington Jr. as a winner, Jahnke tabbed Jeanty as a loser.
"As mentioned above, the Raiders have a new big backup in Mike Washington. Las Vegas has a new head coach in Klint Kubiak, who was just with the Seattle Seahawks, where Zach Charbonnet (220 pounds) was consistently stealing goal-line touches from Kenneth Walker III (211).
"Now, Kubiak has a back heavier than Charbonnet in Washington (223), and a back lighter than Walker in Jeanty (208). While Jeanty still has an opportunity to be among the league-leading backs in touches, a lack of goal-line touches will hurt his chances of finishing among the top-5 fantasy running backs."
It's easy, convenient even, to say that Washington will be Kubiak's Las Vegas version of Zach Charbonnet. And Washington may end up taking a good share of goal line work from Jeanty, like Charbonnet did from Walker III in Seattle.
What's also convenient to miss, however, is that Walker had a tendency to get dinged up before Kubiak was Seattle's offensive coordinator. Coincidentally enough, with Charbonnet taking a notable chunk of goal line work, Walker III played all 17 games and set a career-high in carries last season.
Jeanty led the league in percentage of his team's carries inside the 5-yard line last season (90%). He also had just nine such attempts, the same number as running backs like Woody Marks, Devin Singletary, Blake Corum and Rachaad White. That is an incredibly low volume. These are RB2s and 3s.
And his percentage of the Raiders' carries around the goal line is likely, if not 100% certain, to go down this upcoming season. But the offense will naturally be better, yielding more plays and more opportunities to go around.
So even if Washington gets, say, 20 goal line carries as a rookie, Jeanty could end up with 50. That also happens to be the number of red zone carries Charbonnet had in Kubiak's offense last season, with 11 of his 12 rushing touchdowns coming on those looks.
With Washington now around to possibly vulture some prime scoring opportunities, it's fine to have a bit of hesitancy about Jeanty in fantasy this year. But that's not enough to take him all the way to being a post-draft loser.
A high-end outcome is still in play for Jeanty in 2026. One relatively minor negative does not outweigh all the other positives for him this offseason. Unlike last year around this time, we aren't doing a lot of wishcasting to see Jeanty as a top-end fantasy running back.
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