Ashton Jeanty seeing workload ramp up in recent weeks

It has not been the smoothest beginning to the professional career of Ashton Jeanty, but he seems to be hitting his groove with the Las Vegas Raiders.

When Jeanty was selected sixth overall by the Raiders back in April, it was with the goal of fixing the running game. While he might not have been the silver bullet fans were anticipating, Jeanty has still done his part to prove he is part of the solution. So far, he has notched 497 totals yards from scrimmage and five touchdowns in six games this season.

As Jeanty continues to show improvement week after week, the Raiders have been more inclined to show their faith in him to make the big plays.

Jeanty is picking up an increasing number of carries in recent weeks.

In Sunday’s 20-10 victory over the Tennessee Titans, Jeanty picked up a career-high 23 carries, going for 75 yards and what was ultimately the game-winning touchdown.

The workload has corresponded with success lately. Over the past three games, Jeanty has gotten an average of 22.3 touches. Against the Titans, Raheem Mostert was the only other running back involved with five carries, indicating that Jeanty is the bellcow running back going forward.

It is interesting that Jeanty received such a heavy workload on Sunday, especially given that head coach Pete Carroll challenged offensive coordinator Chip Kelly earlier last week to alleviate pressure on the offense by relying on the running game more.

“We have to run the football better, more,” Carroll said. “And we’re going to continue to work at it and see if we can’t continue to bring it to life. The running game has looked well in order right now, we need to get more of them. That’s part of it. That’s just mixing football. That’s how you do it. We don’t ever want to rely on the quarterback has to do the whole show, sitting in the shotgun, throw the football. Never coach that way. So we have to mix our stuff so we can use our play action game.”

It appears that Carroll and Kelly have reached a level of understanding on how the offense should be run, and that clearly showed against the Titans.