With their first draft pick in the Pete Carroll era, the Las Vegas Raiders made a big splash by using the No. 6 overall pick on Ashton Jeanty, possibly the most hyped running back prospect of the decade so far.
Naturally, one would assume that Carroll would want to use him to the fullest, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
When asked how he'd divide the workload among running backs this season, Carroll, the longtime head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, said he'd be open to using a backfield-by-committee approach, sending Raiders fans and fantasy football players into a frenzy.
"They're gonna show us that when they get the chance to compete," Carroll told reporters Thursday. "I love having multiple guys play. I'm not relying on one guy. Thunder and Lightning back in the day, whatever it takes to get it done. We're going to let the guys play for that, their play time."
If Carroll's history with the Seahawks is anything to go by, however, those wanting to see a healthy dose of Jeanty may not have to worry much.
CBS Sports put together a breakdown of the Seahawks' No. 1 vs. No. 2 running backover Carroll's 14 seasons as head coach, and the results were quite enlightening. In eight of those 14 seasons, the No. 1 running back had more than twice the number of carries as the No. 2 running back, and the ratio was even greater in some seasons. There were some years where the Seahawks took a backfield-by-committee approach - such as in 2017, when the Seahawks weirdly didn't have any running back with 70 or more carries - but the majority of the time, there was indeed a bellcow.
With Raheem Mostert, Cam Miller and Zamir White making up the rest of the Raiders' running back room, there's little reason why Jeanty shouldn't be the Raiders' bellcow back in 2025, assuming he makes the transition to the NFL smoothly.
