LAS VEGAS – Ashton Jeanty spent last season running into problems he could not solve by himself.
There were too few openings, too many defenders waiting for him, and too many afternoons when simply getting back to the line of scrimmage required more work than it should.
He kept running anyway. Kept showing up. Kept carrying himself like someone who believed better days were coming, even when there was little evidence to support that faith.
Sunday offered some.
And for a running back whose rough rookie season was followed by an ankle injury that threatened to complicate the start of his second, the significance stretched well beyond reaching triple digits.
Jeanty rushed for team-high 102 yards on 23 carries in the Raiders’ season-opening victory over the Dolphins and added a team-best six catches for 45 yards.
His 147 yards of offense offered an encouraging glimpse of what he can become in Klint Kubiak’s offense.
His teammates saw the possibilities, too. Jeanty found openings, cut past defenders and powered through tackles. He made himself available in the passing game and helped establish the physical tone the Raiders want to make their identity.
“He won on the ground, he caught it in the air, he got multiple touchdowns, broke a hundred yards,” said Raiders left tackle Kolton Miller. “It gets you fired up.”
Even Kirk Cousins, who has seen plenty during his 14-year NFL career, found himself marveling at the running back taking his handoffs.
The 38-year-old quarterback pointed to a couple of plays when an unblocked cornerback appeared positioned to limit Jeanty to a short gain. Instead, Jeanty bounced outside and turned a potential problem into a footrace.
As Cousins explained, the defender usually has the advantage in that situation.
Jeanty erased it.
“He’s able to get to the edge, and instead of it being a one- or two-yard gain is an eight-yard gain,” Cousins said. “That’s all on his ability as a runner and as a player to make that cut and go in transition.”
Maybe this won’t qualify as a comeback season. Jeanty never really went anywhere.
But a coming-out party?
That possibility suddenly feels a lot more real.
And after last season, it feels like a brand new start.
“The past is the past; we’re moving forward. We’re not worried about what happened last year,” said Jeanty. “This is a new team, a new staff. We’re building a new culture here. That’s a culture that’s going to win football games.”
Jeanty is a big part of that.
The temptation is to focus on the 102 rushing yards. Understandable enough, considering how hard Jeanty had to work for every yard last season.
But the more revealing number might be the 4.4 yards he averaged per carry.
That is where the conversation changes.
Jeanty carried the ball 266 times for 975 yards as a rookie, averaging 3.7 yards per attempt. Too often, the Raiders asked him to manufacture production in an offense that provided precious little assistance.
Now consider what happens if his efficiency improves without his workload increasing at all.
Give Jeanty those same 266 carries at Sunday’s rounded average of 4.4 yards, and he finishes with approximately 1,170 rushing yards.
Consider, too, how the fourth quarter affected his final numbers. With the Raiders trying to run out the clock and the Dolphins loading up to stop him, Jeanty’s final six carries netted zero yards. He entered the quarter with 102 yards on 17 attempts — an average of 6.0 yards per carry.
If Jeanty stays healthy and the offensive line builds on its work over those first three quarters, there is reason to believe Sunday’s efficiency was only a starting point. And greater production will follow.
Same number of handoffs could turn into 250 to 400 additional yards. That is a pretty big increase in production without asking him to absorb one more carry.
“We’re going to ask a lot from him this year,” said Cousins.
That is a meaningful difference for Jeanty and an offense trying to make life more manageable for everyone involved.
Better blocking creates better opportunities. Better opportunities allow Jeanty to turn more of his considerable talent into actual production.
The Raiders do not need to keep piling work onto his shoulders to get more out of him. They need to keep improving the circumstances around him.
Sunday was an encouraging step by the offensive line in that direction.
There was enough room for Jeanty to produce a more efficient afternoon, and enough evidence to suggest the partnership between the back and his blockers can become a foundation for this offense.
One game does not establish consistency. The line still has to prove it can create those opportunities week after week.
But after last season, a functional starting point matters.
So does the receiving component.
Jeanty’s six catches for 45 yards might look like complementary production until you stretch those numbers across a full season.
Over 17 games, that pace produces 102 receptions and 765 receiving yards.
Last season, he caught 55 passes for 346 yards.
Nobody should be handing him 102 catches after one Sunday. Game plans change. Opponents adjust. Opportunities fluctuate.
But the comparison illustrates how much more offense could be available through Jeanty, especially when Kubiak can involve him as both a runner and receiver.
His full opening-day pace projects to 1,734 rushing yards and 2,499 yards from scrimmage. Those are projections, obviously, not predictions.
The point is the range of possibilities when the Raiders can consistently access both parts of his game.
And they did all of this without Brock Bowers.
Presumably, the offense becomes even more difficult to defend when its star tight end returns from his knee procedure. Bowers commands attention, creates matchup problems and gives defenses another major concern when deciding how to allocate their resources.
That should benefit Jeanty, too.
For now, there is something fitting about him being part of the first tangible reward for the Raiders’ offseason changes.
Jeanty never hung his head last season. He did not allow the frustration to become his defining characteristic or treat the circumstances as permission to stop doing his job.
He kept giving the Raiders what he had.
Then came the ankle injury, another unwelcome complication for a player eager to move forward. Sunday did not erase that concern for the entire season, but it showed he could shoulder a substantial workload and make it count.
There will be tougher afternoons ahead. The blocking will not always cooperate, and one productive opener does not resolve every question surrounding this offense.
But Jeanty finally had something tangible to show for all that persistence.
More room. More efficiency. More ways to influence a game.
After a year spent waiting for the Raiders to help bring out his best, Sunday looked like the beginning of that process.
And perhaps the beginning of the season everyone was waiting for.
