The Raiders Need to Make One Big Change After Ashton Jeanty’s Injury

The Las Vegas Raiders exhaled a sigh of relief after Ashton Jeanty’s injury scare over the weekend.

The second-year running back needed helped off the field, but imaging returned an ankle sprain for Jenaty, who thankfully avoided a major injury.

The Raiders drafted Jeanty No. 6 overall last year. He’s expected to receive a major workload in new head coach Klint Kubiak’s offense, especially with Kirk Cousins likely to start the season ahead of No. 1 overall selection Fernando Mendoza. Since the Raiders are a team in transition, having a stout run game with Jeanty is one way for the Raiders to establish an identity in Kubiak’s first season. But now that identity will be at hold, at least throughout the rest of the preseason as Jeanty rehabs this sprained ankle, which doesn’t have a timeline yet.

But Kubiak can do one thing to work towards building up the offense in Las Vegas while not rushing Jeanty back from this injured ankle – utilizing Mike Washington Jr.

Insert Mike Washington Jr. into this offense

The Raiders drafted Washington in the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft out of Arkansas. Coming into his rookie season, he was expected to be a change of pace back, with Jeanty getting most of the attention offensively.

But that plan should tweak slightly during the remainder of the preseason, and even into the early-week games for the Raiders.

Kubiak should have no qualms about deploying Washington and getting him ready for an increased workload in 2026.

Even though Jeanty was a top 10 pick, and that would signify that he should be the bell cow in this offense, don’t sleep on Washington's potential to be a home run hitter in Kubiak’s first season, especially if the Raiders want to build towards winning.

It’s a copycat league.

The Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl last season with a split backfield. Kenneth Walker III won Super Bowl MVP, but Zach Charbonnet played a big role during the regular season and playoffs. This year, they’ll deploy another split backfield of Charbonnet and No. 32 overall pick Jadarian Price, who will have a huge role.

On the other side, the New England Patriots always deploy a million running backs. Hell, fantasy footballers will remember that it took forever for the Patriots to get TreVeyon Henderson some action behind Rhamondre Stevenson.

They drafted Washington for a reason this April. Fourth-rounders aren’t always a guarantee, but Washington’s college football pedigree makes him an intriguing option for the Raiders to build an actual identity in 2026 instead of just losing more games in a loaded division.