Ashton Jeanty wrote quite a check before the Las Vegas Raiders' Week 8 matchup, stating that the New York Jets' defense had several players who "don't really want to tackle." Well, Klint Kubiak didn't even give the second-year running back a chance to back up his trash talk.
The Raiders did emerge victorious in this game, which is most important, as they completely turned things around at halftime to win 38-33 and get back to .500. But Las Vegas did not utilize its No. 6 overall pick from the 2025 NFL Draft, instead turning to rookie fourth-rounder Mike Washington Jr.
While it remains unclear exactly why the Silver and Black switched gears in the backfield in the dramatic fashion that they did, one thing is clear: Some kind of message was sent. Let's dive into just how drastic a change this was, what it may mean, and what could be at the root of it.
Raiders completely turn away from Ashton Jeanty in Week 8 vs. Jets
In the first seven games of the season, Jeanty out-snapped Washington Jr. 335-100. The former had 106 carries on the year and 45 targets in the passing game, compared to just 40 and 11, respectively, for the latter. It was clear who the No. 1 running back was in Las Vegas, until Sunday.
Against the Jets, Kubiak chose to run Washington Jr. a whopping 25 times in his 38 offensive snaps. That is more carries than Jeanty has had in a single game this season. In Week 8, Jeanty ran the ball just twice for nine yards, although he did have three catches for 64 yards in his 25 offensive snaps.
A complete 180.
Not only did Washington Jr. play more snaps, but Jeanty touched the ball a fraction as often as his rookie counterpart. After Jeanty talked some smack in the media about the Jets' run defense, he didn't really get a chance to back it up or cash the check that he wrote. It was quite strange.
But it doesn't sound like it was unexpected for him, nor is there anything going on behind the scenes.
What Klint Kubiak and Ashton Jeanty said about reduced role
After the contest, Jeanty fielded questions from reporters. He said that it was "communicated" to him that he'd get fewer carries against New York, and he displayed incredible maturity and a team-first mindset in the rest of his statement.
“We won. It doesn't matter how I feel about how [many] times I get the ball. Whatever it takes for the team to win, I just want to win. That's all.”
Sunday could not have been easy for Jeanty, as he pretty much had his job taken from him, even if it was just for one game. That, in addition to being dragged by media members for his comments about the Jets' defense, surely made for a rough week for Jeanty, if he heard the external noise.
He displayed a tremendous attitude with this quote, though, and that is important. Jeanty can still be a pivotal part of this offense, but it'll take buy-in from him. Whatever the future holds for Jeanty, Kubiak remains confident in his young running back tandem.
"We know that we have two runners that we believe in."
Many have theorized that Jeanty was being punished in Week 8 for his comments, and that's why the snap share and carry allocation was the way that it was. And while that could be a sound theory, knowing what we know about Kubiak, the head coach denied that idea post-game.
Jeanty was a captain for this Sunday, after all, so maybe the Raiders just wanted to see what Washington Jr. could do with a full workload. It's not like the rushing attack has been tremendous for Las Vegas, and perhaps they felt that drastic measures needed to be taken.
By no means is it "over" for Jeanty; this is just a bump in the road. But after he taunted the Jets' run defense a bit, Kubiak didn't even give him a chance to back it up.
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