Jeanty & Washington: The Raiders' Two Different Athletes

Why the Raiders Are Building a Two-Back System

Ashton Jeanty's rookie season was a workload story more than a talent question. Raiders running backs carried the ball 307 times in 2025, and Jeanty accounted for 266 of them — 86.6% of the team's total rushing attempts. He played 770 of the Raiders' 994 offensive snaps, a 77.5% snap share that buried him in touches with almost no relief.

New head coach Klint Kubiak ran a similar two-back rotation last year in Seattle, splitting carries between Kenneth Walker III (221 carries, 1,027 yards, 4.6 YPC) and Zach Charbonnet (184 carries, 730 yards, 12 TDs) en route to a Super Bowl. He's bringing that structure to Las Vegas, pairing Jeanty with fourth-round rookie Mike Washington Jr. out of Arkansas. "I think that they're both going to prepare to play a lot of football," Kubiak said. "We've got two guys that we're really excited about."

The Combine Numbers: A Study in Contrasts

This isn't a clean athletic comparison, because one of these backs simply doesn't have an official testing number. Here's what exists on paper for each:

Jeanty skipped every workout drill at the 2025 combine and then declined the 40, vertical, and bench press at his own Boise State pro day, betting that game tape alone would carry his stock. It worked — he still went No. 6 overall on the strength of a junior season with 2,601 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns, the second-highest single-season rushing total in FBS history. He simply has no official testing number to compare against Washington's blazing 4.33.

Washington, by contrast, ran the ninth-fastest 40 time of any player at the 2026 combine — faster than most wide receivers and defensive backs, let alone running backs. See how that stacks up against every position group in our full breakdown of the fastest 2026 rookies.

What Washington Has Shown in the Preseason

Washington's college testing number hasn't been a fluke through three preseason games. He ripped off a 53-yard run in the Raiders' preseason opener, followed it with a 33-yarder in game two, and then took over as the lead back in the preseason finale after Jeanty went down with an ankle injury — running eight times for 49 yards (6.1 yards per carry), including gains of 8, 13, and 11 yards.

Kubiak hasn't confirmed Jeanty's Week 1 availability against Miami. "Still on the mend," he said. "We've got another week to assess how he's going to look." That makes Washington's testing speed and preseason burst more than a training-camp footnote — it's now a real possibility he opens the regular season as the Raiders' lead back.

Two Different Runners, One Zone-Heavy Scheme

Style-wise, both backs actually profile similarly in a gap-scheme sense — Jeanty ran 193 gap runs to 181 zone runs at Boise State, and Washington split 90 gap to 72 zone at Arkansas. Kubiak's system, inherited from the Shanahan coaching tree, leans zone-heavy, which means both backs will have some adjusting to do regardless of who's healthy. Jeanty led all backs in the 2025 rookie class with 43 broken tackles and generated 780 of his 975 rushing yards after contact — production built on vision and contact balance, not top-end speed. Washington's calling card, at least early, looks like the reverse: explosive, straight-line speed that shows up the moment he finds a crease.

Frequently Asked Questions