A week ago, grave concern had already been somewhat curbed by the news that Las Vegas Raiders star running back Ashton Jeanty had only suffered a sprained ankle. More general uncertainty prevailed, though, since ankle injuries can have a wide range of severities and recovery timetables.
Of course, Klint Kubiak was no help on that front, offering a vague answer because he could, with no injury report that had to be submitted. That being said, Kubiak's non-answer two days after the injury was completely expected. If he had said something definitive, that would've been surprising.
The next notable time regarding Jeanty's injury outlook was Sunday, when teams had to be cut down to 53 players on the active roster. The initial 53-man team is a fluid thing between now and Week 1, as waiver claims get submitted, free agents get signed or a player gets placed on IR.
Still, how many running backs the Raiders kept on the first version of their roster would be very telling about Jeanty's status. The idea that he could be placed on IR and have to miss at least four games surrounded the situation, but fans and fantasy managers got good news on that front.
Raiders' roster decisions have put concerns about Ashton Jeanty's injury to rest
While an addition seems possible in the coming days, the Raiders kept just three running backs on their initial 53-man roster: Jeanty, rookie Mike Washington Jr. and Dylan Laube. Dare Ogunbowale and undrafted rookie Roman Hemby were cut and waived, respectively, to thin out the group.
So, at a minimum, barring a surprising post-roster-cut move to put him on IR, Jeanty is expected to return to action sometime within the first four games of the season. While that doesn't sound overly optimistic, it remains possible that he simply misses zero contests.
When the season opener arrives, it will have been three weeks since he suffered the injury. Due to how quickly positive news came about his injury, Jeanty's average draft position (ADP) in fantasy football really didn't have time to drop as far as it could've.
But as of this writing, per Fantasy Pros Real-Time ADP, Jeanty is the 12th running back off the board and pick 2.08 overall in 12-team leagues. There's a hint of value potential there; if Jeanty is healthy, he can easily exceed that draft position.
But all in all, fantasy managers who had already drafted Jeanty can breathe an official sigh of relief based on the construction of the initial 53-man roster for Las Vegas. And those who have yet to have their drafts can keep him where he is on their draft boards, as if a scary scene at Raiders practice never even happened.
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