Las Vegas Raiders rookie running back Ashton Jeanty is averaging just 2.7 yards per rush on 30 total carries through two games, with five catches for three yards on six targets tacked on. The offensive line has done him no favors, as he has more rushing yards after contact than he has total.
Jeanty also has 26 yards after the catch so far this season, so the inefficient usage extends to the passing game. It has, of course, only been two games, and things can really only improve moving forward.
For his part, and backing up what head coach Pete Carroll said after the game against the Chargers, Jeanty made it clear that he's ready for more touches.
The biggest issue in Week 2 against the Los Angeles Chargers, however, was Jeanty's snap count. He played just 39 of the team's 70 offensive snaps, which is a mere 56% share. Zamir White played 21 snaps, and Dylan Laube played 12 snaps, so they both got noticeably more work than expected.
Former Raiders LB Kirk Morrison weighs in on Ashton Jeanty's workload
When asked about Jeanty's workload this week, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly hit an expected and reasonable note with a sensible comparison.
"You’re thinking short term because you’re playing games, but you’re also thinking long term. You have three running backs up on gameday, so you’ve got to be able to distribute that. As a staff, Ashton played 54 snaps the week before, and that was a little heavy," Kelly said. "In basketball, it’s called load management. We’re not sitting out games here, but I think you have to be conscious of, over the course of 17 games, if some guy’s carrying the ball 30 times a game, they only have so many carries in a season in them. … If you’re using them early, it’s going to hurt you late, so there has to be balance.”
One of the positives from Jeanty's disappointing Week 1 was that he played 86% of the offensive snaps. Then, in a pass-heavy Week 2 game plan that was never deviated from despite Geno Smith clearly not playing well, it became a three-man backfield rotation with players who aren't as good taking a notable chunk of the work away.
Having Jeanty play every, or nearly every, offensive snap is not realistic or sustainable. But his touch-to-snap ratio, as evidenced by his 35 touches on 93 snaps so far this season, is undeniably lacking, which Kelly would surely acknowledge.
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During an appearance on Raider Nation Radio's Unnecessary Roughness this week, Raiders radio color analyst Kirk Morrison made it clear he'd like to see Jeanty become the focal point of the offense, giving an exact number of touches he'd like to see.
"He’s a 20 and five guy. If people are going to ask me, that’s going to be my thing for Ashton Jeanty," Morrison said. "Not 20 points, five rebounds. He’s 20 rushes and five receptions. That should be his ball game every single week.”
Morrison put a noticeable and unlikely number on the amount of touches that he thinks Jeanty should get in every game. He also added how getting Jeanty a more appropriate touch volume doesn't have to be via sheer rushing attempts, or necessarily be dependent on the game script or the run game going well.
“I wanted to see Ashton and him one-on-one, and we didn’t get those opportunities because I thought Geno pressed the ball down the field. But man, there was a lot of times, I would say at least three or four times, he had Jeanty," Morrison said. "So you got to get him involved, and you don’t always have to run the football to do that. Swing it to him, just get him out there in space. He is so close to breaking the big one, you can just see it happening.”
A simple increase in his involvement would do wonders for Jeanty, the team and Raider Nation, so perhaps Las Vegas should heed the words of its former player.