HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — There were flashes last season of the Ashton Jeanty who put up historic rushing numbers in 2024 at Boise State and finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting.
But 2025 was a trying rookie season for the Las Vegas Raiders' sixth-round draft selection that year, certainly not to even his lofty expectations.
Jeanty has taken those experiences into 2026 with the hopes of producing the type of season that he hopes would make him
one of the NFL's top running backs.
“When everything is not going well, continuing to go to work and having hope and faith,” Jeanty said. "I think that’ll carry into this year. Just taking it one week at a time, whether you win or you lose, you’ve got to attack the next game and the next week with the same mindset.”
It's not that last season was a complete failure. Jeanty, in fact, came 25 yards from reaching 1,000 behind an offensive line that was the NFL's worst. His 1.6 yards per attempt before contact, according to Pro Football Reference, was third worst among backs with more than 100 rushes.
The Raiders invested in their offensive line, most notably signing three-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum out of Baltimore to a three-year, $81 million deal, with $60 million guaranteed. That's the richest contract ever for an interior offensive lineman.
Las Vegas also signed Spencer Burford, who spent three previous four seasons at San Francisco, and he has been the first-team left guard this training camp. Left tackle Kolton Miller returns from an ankle injury that ended his season after just four games.
How much better the line will be remains to be seen, but there is genuine hope that Jeanty will have more running room than he had last season.
“He wants to be a major part of this team,” first-year coach Klint Kubiak said. "We’re going to give him that opportunity.”
That comment falls in line with a similar one Kubiak made in the offseason that he expects Jeanty to be the bellcow back even with fourth-round pick Mike Washington Jr. on the roster. The rookie has had his moments in camp, and even got a carry with the starting offense on Sunday.
“It’s always great to come out the game and have another guy come in there and there’s no drop down,” Jeanty said. "I truly believe he’ll be able to help us win some games.”
The Raiders, of course, are counting on Jeanty to do the same, and he enters the season with a lot of focus on how he can take his game to another level.
One way, according to offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko, is for the soft-spoken Jeanty to be a more outspoken leader.
“It’s always tough being in the first year trying to figure out so much stuff,” Jeanty said. “But this year, there’s a lot of expectations for me and I think I’ve got to make a big jump. I think that starts with helping my teammates as well and just being a better teammate.”
While the competition between quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza has generated the most attention, there is a notable battle taking place to replace one of the top kickers in Raiders history.
The Raiders chose to move on from Daniel Carlson, who owns the top four field goal percentages in club history and is all over the team record book.
Veteran Matt Gay and rookie Kansei Matsuzawa, also known as "The Tokyo Toe," are competing for the job.
“I dreamed of playing in the NFL seven years ago, and then my dream come true,” Matsuzawa said. "But there’s a lot of things going on, and I want to do better. I want to be a great player. It’s been amazing, but I feel like this is the first step of my new journey here.”
Gay hopes to return to his form in 2021 and 2022 when he made 94.1% and 93.3% of his field goals, respectively for the Los Angeles Rams. He has failed to reach 90% since then, but he is reunited with his Rams special teams coordinator, Joe DeCamillis.
“I’m really pleased with how I’m hitting it right now, getting back with Joe,” Gay said. “We get each other pretty well, and I think we vibe off each other really well. He knows kind of what I need. My goals for the end of training camp is just to get back to feeling like my true self, get back hitting the ball, get back to not thinking too much.”
Second-year wide receiver Dont'e Thornton Jr. was helped into the locker room late in practice Sunday. The fourth-round pick in 2025 caught 10 passes for 135 yards last season.
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