The Las Vegas Raiders mortgaged a lot on running back Ashton Jeanty by taking him with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. The initial idea was that this team, led by Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly, would be a run-first offense despite veteran quarterback Geno Smith under center.
That has been far from the case through the first two weeks of the regular season. Jeanty has run just 30 times in two games for 81 yards, which is a brutal 2.7 yards per carry. But, despite what the box score shows, the young running back has not played badly.
His lack of production can be partially explained by offensive coordinator Chip Kelly's bizarre usage of him, but mostly, it is due to incredibly poor run-blocking by the offensive line. The team has been far from perfect thus far, but the run-blocking is undeniably the Raiders' biggest issue already.
Raiders must fix run-blocking or risk disaster
Before getting into any advanced analytics, the straight-up numbers do not lie in this case. Las Vegas has run 43 times this season for 124 yards, which is just 2.9 yards per rush and 62.0 yards per game. These both rank 31st in the NFL out of 32 teams.
To put things into perspective, the Raiders' 79.8 rushing yards per game last year was by far the worst mark in the league, yet somehow, after drafting Jeanty, the rushing attack has gotten worse. The unit also has zero rushes of 20 or more yards, to boot.
A lot of this can be explained by simply looking at how each of Las Vegas' offensive linemen has been graded as run-blockers. According to Pro Football Focus, the Raiders have only two players who are even recording average grades as run blockers: Kolton Miller and Jordan Meredith.
Dylan Parham, Jackson Powers-Johnson, DJ Glaze and Alex Cappa are all firmly in the "poor performance' category through two games. Parham and Glaze have each earned a 55.5 grade, while Powers-Johnson and Cappa earned a 54.8 and 44.0 in one game, respectively.
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To nobody's surprise, the advanced analytics are not kind to this group either. To begin, ESPN's Field Yates noted that Jeanty has recorded -6 and 3 rushing yards before contact in Weeks 1 and 2, respectively. This means he is barely touching the ball before being swarmed.
The Raiders' rushing EPA per play, which is a measure of the play-by-play impact on a team's scoring potential, ranks second-to-last in the NFL. This means that not only are their total rushing numbers bad, but their efficiency is nearly the worst in the league.
In another statistical anomaly, Jeanty has just 81 rushing yards on the season, but he has 84 rushing yards after contact. He also has just three receiving yards, but 26 receiving yards after contact. His elusive rating, according to PFF, is the fourth-best in the league.
This means that the Raiders' offensive line is providing no resistance against the defense, but Jeanty is still carving out as many yards as he can. There is only so much a young player can do when they are touched at or behind the line of scrimmage on 54.5% of their rushes.
No matter how you slice it, Las Vegas' run-blocking is a major issue. The basic statistics, advanced analytics and good old-fashioned eye test all corroborate this statement. It is partially up to Carroll and Kelly, but ultimately, the men up front, to correct these blocking atrocities, or else the season may get derailed, and fast.