The Raiders are not hiding the plan for Ashton Jeanty. Klint Kubiak wants the 2025 No. 6 overall pick on the field more often, under more pressure, and doing more damage for a team that simply cannot afford to waste a back who already delivered 1,300-plus scrimmage yards and 10 total touchdowns as a rookie.
That is the encouraging part. The uncomfortable part is that Jeanty’s first season still left room for a lot more. He was productive enough to show why Las Vegas invested so heavily in him, but his passing-game involvement never really matched the level of trust you would expect from a player with his talent. Now Kubiak is essentially saying the quiet part out loud: the Raiders want more, and they expect more.
Jeanty already proved he can carry weight
There is no need to dress up his rookie season as anything other than a strong one. Jeanty topped 1,300 scrimmage yards and scored 10 touchdowns, split evenly with five rushing touchdowns and five receiving touchdowns. For a rookie, that is a serious return, not a polite apprenticeship.
And yet the deeper numbers also tell you why the Raiders are pushing this conversation forward. Jeanty had only 55 receptions on 73 targets, and the article makes clear that his role in the passing game left a lot to be desired. He lined up in the slot or out wide on just 32 snaps, which is a pretty clear sign that Las Vegas barely scratched the surface of what he can do.
That matters because the league has changed the way it uses backs. The best ones do not just wait for handoffs and hope for the best. They bend defenses, force coverage choices and create mismatch problems every time they stay on the field. Kubiak has made it obvious he sees Jeanty in that light, even drawing on the Christian McCaffrey model by pointing to how often elite backs are simply allowed to keep playing.
More pressure, more responsibility, more excuses gone
Kubiak’s comments were direct. He said the Raiders want to put a lot of pressure on Ashton, challenge him more, and get him on the field as much as possible. He also made the broader point that the best players have to play and that the team must get them out there. That is a straightforward message, and it is a healthy one.
It also creates a standard. Jeanty is not being treated like a project. He is being treated like a central piece. That is exactly how a 2025 No. 6 overall pick should be treated after a rookie year that could have gone much worse, but still ended with real production and more questions than answers about usage.
The good news for Las Vegas is that the second-year setup looks better. Improvements to the offensive line and coaching should help Jeanty in year two, and Kubiak’s background matters here too. In 2023, he was the San Francisco 49ers' passing game coordinator, so this is not a coach speaking casually about backfield usage. He understands what a more versatile offensive structure can do when it is built around the right player.
There is also a useful wider debate around how the Raiders can shape this backfield, and the Marcus Allen comparison aside, there is a case for building a more versatile structure around Ashton Jeanty. The basic principle is simple: if you have a young back good enough to justify more touches, then give him more touches. Football should not be made harder than that.
Jeanty’s rookie year was a platform, not the finished product. If Kubiak follows through on this plan, the Raiders’ offense should look more dangerous, more coherent and a lot less dependent on guesswork. If they do not, then they will be leaving one of the most obvious advantages on the table.
