Ashton Jeanty missed Friday’s practice and Klint Kubiak listed him as questionable for Sunday’s game at New England. The issue is his ankle and foot, and Las Vegas is not committing either way.
A Friday absence for a running back is usually the tell. Teams that expect a player to go get him on the field for at least a limited session. Teams that are hoping get him treatment and make the call on Sunday morning.
The Raiders Need Him
Las Vegas is 3-1, which is more than almost anyone projected, and the ground game has been central to how they got there. Jeanty is the engine of this offense, and the Raiders have built their identity around giving him the ball and controlling the clock.
Without him, the shape of the game changes entirely. Las Vegas becomes a team that has to throw to stay on schedule, against a defense that will be happy to let them try.
Kubiak has not named a plan for the backfield if Jeanty sits, which is standard practice on a Friday. The Raiders will keep that card face down until kickoff.
New England Has Its Own Problem
Here is the part that makes this interesting. The Patriots are 2-2 and have ruled out four cornerbacks: Christian Gonzalez, Carlton Davis, Channing Canada and Karon Prunty.
Four corners. Out. That is a position group getting rebuilt on a Saturday morning. If there was ever a week to be a passing offense walking into Foxborough, this is it.
So the Raiders may end up in a strange spot: short their best offensive player, facing a defense missing its entire starting secondary. Those two things do not cancel out, but they do point to a game that gets decided through the air whether Las Vegas planned it that way or not.
What to Watch Sunday
If Jeanty is active, Las Vegas should still run it, because a depleted New England secondary means safeties will be busy and the box will be lighter than usual. If he is out, the Raiders have a matchup that practically demands they attack downfield.
Either way, this is a winnable game for a team that has already banked three of them. The Raiders are in the strange position of being a legitimate playoff contender in October, and legitimate contenders find ways to win in Foxborough when the other team has nobody left to cover anyone.
Watch the Friday-to-Sunday progression. If Jeanty is upgraded or shows up in warmups moving well, Las Vegas is in good shape. If he is a game-time decision that goes the wrong way, this becomes a test of how deep the Raiders really are.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.