Raiders’ Ashton Jeanty ‘On the Mend’ After Injury Scare

Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty appears to have avoided a serious injury.

The former sixth overall pick suffered an injury scare after he was helped off the field during practice Sunday. But head coach Klint Kubiak said on Tuesday that Jeanty was “on the mend.”

The injury concern comes as Jeanty has put up respectable numbers in his rookie season and is looking to build on that start in year two.

The Raiders noted that Jeanty was diving for a pass and “landed awkwardly,” while Raiders beat reporters at the practice said he couldn’t put pressure on his right leg as he was taken off the field.

As Jeanty was helped off, the team took a knee and said a prayer together. Kubiak confirmed it Tuesday.

“Yeah, [they] said a prayer,” he said. “Power of prayer.”

ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport later reported that the injury was an ankle sprain.

A reporter asked Kubiak whether he felt the prayer was answered after the news broke.

“Well, [God] always answers in His time,” he replied.

Jeanty played his college football at Boise State. In 2024, he led the FBS in rushing with 374 carries for 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns; he added 23 receptions for 138 yards and a touchdown.

He was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, finishing as runner-up to Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter. He was named a unanimous All-American and won the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year, the Maxwell Award, the Doak Walker Award, and the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award for his performance.

The Raiders took Jeanty with the sixth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. He put up respectable numbers in his rookie season: he rushed 266 times for 975 yards and 5 touchdowns; he added 55 receptions for 346 yards and another 5 scores.

But his stats were complicated. He averaged just 3.7 yards per carry, which ranked 45th in the NFL among qualifying running backs, despite ranking seventh in the league in total carries.

The Raiders had to lean on Jeanty because the passing game struggled mightily. Starting quarterback Geno Smith only passed for 3,025 yards and 19 touchdowns to 17 interceptions; as a team, Smith and backups Kenny Pickett and Aidan O’Connell combined for 3,270 yards and 20 TDs and 19 picks, which was worse than the top 15 starting quarterbacks in the league in terms of yardage; their total touchdowns would have been tied for 19th.

And the offensive line was a liability in both the pass and the run: the Raiders gave up a total of 64 sacks in the passing game; on the ground, Jeanty averaged just 1.6 yards before contact per rushing attempt, ranking 47th among qualifying running backs and well below the league average of 2.5 yards before contact—meaning Jeanty was regularly getting blown up at the line of scrimmage.

But Jeanty had a positive outlook on his first season in the pros.

“I think it was good,” he said in January, via the Raiders’ website. “Obviously there’s still a lot of room for growth, but I think I did pretty good for what I had. There’s some plays I’ve run back and looked at, wished I could’ve capitalized more but that’s just a part of the game. You’re not going to make every single play out there. But I’m going to be working this offseason, building off what I’ve done this year and just trying to improve on the little things that I can.”

The Raiders have since tried to help Jeanty by overhauling their offensive line, bringing in former Baltimore Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum and San Francisco 49ers guard Spencer Burford in free agency; they also added fullback Connor Heyward.

They also drafted a new running mate for Jeanty in Arkansas’s Mike Washington Jr. Washington brings an intriguing blend of size (6-foot-1, 223 pounds) and freakish athleticism (a 4.33-second 40-yard dash, 39-inch vertical, and 10-foot-8 broad jump), and has already shown out in the preseason with several big runs in the preseason.