Ashton Jeanty sent a reminder to the Las Vegas Raiders: drafting him that high doesn’t mean much if they’re not going to put the ball in his hands.

He said, “I don’t think you draft a guy like me to not give me carries and touches.”

The Raiders went all in on Jeanty at No. 6 to fix one of last year’s weakest ground games. But two weeks in, the Boise State product hasn’t exactly lit it up. 38 yards on 19 carries with a score in Week 1 (2.0 YPC), then 43 yards on 11 totes before leaving in Week 2.

So, ahead of the Commanders game, quarterback Geno Smith made it clear that’s where the fix lies:

“Yeah, I mean, the more we can get touches to our backs, to Ashton (Jeanty), you know, to Zamir (White), the better,” he said, praising their ability to run through tackles and create in space.

“You know, we’re going to be as an offense. Those guys are our playmakers. They do well in space. As you can see, Ashton’s out there running guys over. He’s bouncing off tackles, and so is Zamir. And so, yeah, we have to remain balanced. We have to get those guys the ball in space, whether that’s in the run game or the passing game,” Smith added.

The numbers and the tape agree: this rushing attack is stuck in neutral, lacking rhythm and push. The fix? Pretty simple—give the backs more touches. Something Geno wants to lean into moving forward.

Limited carries in the last couple of weeks have been the major problem for Pete Carroll and his rushing attack. In the season opener against the Patriots, Vegas rushed for just 56 yards. In Week 2? It came out flat again. Just 68 yards. Now, it really comes down to one question: Why has the run game looked this rough?

First off, the Raiders’ offensive line hasn’t been doing the rookie back any favors. They’re not opening lanes for Jeanty to work with.

Then there’s the snap count. He was only on the field for about 56% of the plays in the Week 2 loss against the Chargers.

And to top it off, his shaky pass protection had Carroll and the staff keeping him off the field for those last couple of drives against the Chargers.

Evidently, Carroll and Co. have to make an assessment of Jeanty’s development if they want to avoid the rushing attack struggles.

Pete Carroll is just getting started with Ashton Jeanty

Ashton Jeanty was unstoppable in his final year at Boise State. The back rushed for over 2,500 yards and racked up 29 rushing touchdowns.

Ahead of the draft, one thing was clear: Jeanty was going to be a top 10 pick, and he sure did.

But heading into the NFL, his performance came out flat, or should we say, the Raiders’ rushing attack came out flat.

During the Week 2 game, the Raiders decided to sideline Jeanty on the final couple of drives, which led Eddie Borsilli of the Yards Per Attempt podcast to rant against the Raiders’ coaching staff.

“Ashton Jeanty is 21. The 6th pick in the draft. Had 2k yards last year in college. Yet, he’s on the sideline when the Raiders are down by 2 scores. Make it make sense. Keep good players on the field,” he wrote.

The frustration was tangible. After all, Jeanty was the No. 6 overall pick. But when Pete Carroll was asked about his struggles at the earliest of his NFL career, the head coach confirmed that they’re just getting started with the rookie and admitted that they’ve to run the ball effectively.

“We’re just getting started (with Jeanty),” Carroll said, while adding, “He’s breaking into the NFL. He’s figuring it out. He’ll get more carries. We have to run the ball more effectively. We only got (68 yards), and that’s not enough. We need more than that. We’re bringing (Jeanty) along. More will come.”

Jeanty must reorganize…and pronto!

For the time being, the Raiders rank 31st in rushing yards (124) and yards per carry (2.9). Last year, they had the worst rushing attack.

As can be seen, they’ve started where they left off. We’ll see how this comes to an end.