Anyone expecting the Las Vegas Raiders' run game to be an overnight success with Klint Kubiak has surely been disappointed through the first four weeks of the 2026 NFL season. Those issues were glaring in the Week 4 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, as the rushing attack floundered yet again.
If one told a Raiders fan in August that the team would be 3-1 with a close loss to the Chiefs, they would probably assume that a lethal run game had kept a struggling Kirk Cousins afloat. But it has been quite the opposite, as the veteran quarterback has made it happen without anything to lean on.
And it would be super easy to start spiraling about the team's inability to run the football and begin placing blame on Kubiak for not delivering, the offensive line for not being as improved as fans thought it would be, or on Ashton Jeanty and Mike Washington Jr. for being big letdowns.
But that's not the right take, at least not yet. Let's take a trip to exactly one year ago and examine the 2025 Seattle Seahawks' rushing attack through four games. Perhaps that will give Raider Nation a bit of hope where there seems to currently be none.
Raiders fans should find beacon of hope in Seahawks' early 2025 rushing stats
Through the first four games of the year, Las Vegas ranks at or near the very bottom of the league in many rushing metrics once again. But contrary to popular belief, the Seahawks' rushing attack struggled out of the gate last year as well. Here are the stats for both teams through Week 4:
2025 Seahawks | 2026 Raiders | |
|---|---|---|
Rushing Attempts | 123 | 111 |
Rushing Yards | 443 | 383 |
Rushing Yards per Game | 110.75 | 95.75 |
Yards per Attempt | 3.6 | 3.45 |
Rushing Touchdowns | 5 | 1 |
Obviously, Seattle's numbers through four games look a bit better... but not that much better. On three more attempts per game, the 2025 Seahawks averaged 15 more yards per contest than the 2026 Raiders currently do. The yards per attempt difference is negligible, as one can see.
While the touchdown numbers are down in 2026, getting in the end zone is erratic. Overall, the Las Vegas offense is scoring more than Seattle's was last year, as the Raiders are scoring 28.75 points per game, whereas the Seahawks of 2025 averaged just 24.75 through four games.
Not to mention, Kubiak inherited a far better product in Seattle. The year before he got there, the Seahawks were toward the bottom of the league in attempts and total yards, but they were league-average in efficiency and did a great job of punching the ball in for scores. That's not the case here.
Kubiak inherited a Raiders rushing attack that has been the absolute worst in the NFL for the last two years, and very close to it in 2023. He may have started on first or second base in Seattle, but Kubiak was basically still in the dugout, waiting for his turn to bat when he arrived in Las Vegas.
Not to mention, the Seahawks had an established duo of Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet, who were heading into their fourth and third years in the league, respectively. They had skins on the wall already at the NFL level and legitimate success to build on.
In 2026, the Raiders are working with Ashton Jeanty, a heralded sophomore who essentially learned nothing in his first year and clearly isn't 100%, to boot, and a Day 3 rookie in Mike Washington Jr. These two players have potential, yes, but they are still very much learning and growing.
It's not like Kubiak has the easiest system in the world to learn, as it takes reps on reps for everything to flow together on zone concepts. This is a precise, detail-oriented offense that cannot be mastered immediately. But what happened in 2025 for Seattle can happen in 2026 for Las Vegas.
Seattle figured it out in 2025, and Las Vegas can too in 2026
As much as the Seahawks struggled to run in the first four weeks of the season, they figured it out. All of a sudden, things clicked for them. Here were their rushing yardage totals from Week 5 all the way through the Super Bowl: 122, 60, 118, 88, 198, 135, 114, 125, 129, 50, 171, 163, 180, 175, 75, 141.
That's a lot of games in the 120s and up.
This Seattle team finished the year 10th in total rushing yards, and that was in large part because they didn't abandon the run. Kubiak kept with it, kept coaching, kept adjusting, and eventually, the dam broke. Like the Raiders, the Seahawks had running back talent. They had offensive line talent.
But it just took them a while to figure it out. And this was never an ultra-efficient attack, as Seattle still finished 25th in the NFL in rushing yards per game. Averaging 4.1 yards per carry, though, will more than get the job done when you are hell-bent on running it, as the 2025 Seahawks were.
The 2026 Raiders seem to be, and should continue to be, as well.
Las Vegas has two immensely skilled young backs in Jeanty and Washington Jr., they have an improved offensive line that will only continue to get better under Rick Dennison, and they have a quarterback who is actually making teams pay through the air. Eventually, defenses will adjust.
When they do, the Raiders can get some mojo back on the ground. It didn't really come together for Seattle consistently until Week 10, anyway, and yet Kubiak still found ways to put up points. Through four weeks, he's actually doing that better in Las Vegas, to the tune of four more points per game.
So, don't panic just yet, Raider Nation. Sure, the run game has a lot to figure out, both in terms of the blocking and decision-making by the backs. The play-calling can be a bit better, and a number of other factors are contributing to their slow start.
But if this offense is going to put up over 28 points per game, with or without the rushing attack, then there is no need to panic until that number starts to drop. And history says that Kubiak's running offense takes time and reps to figure out and master. So, let's just have a little patience.
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