Last year, the Las Vegas Raiders trusted Zamir White enough to let star running back Josh Jacobs walk in free agency. Unfortunately, the former fourth-round pick wasn’t up to the task.
He started in four games before he got injured and was then benched. He ended the season averaging 2.8 yards per carry.
The Raiders’ offensive line play was very poor early in the season, so he was often getting hit before he had a chance to make a play. That said, other running backs outperformed him. Now that the team drafted Ashton Jeanty and signed Raheem Mostert, White could be an odd man out.
In a recent mailbag, Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal was asked if there’s a surprise player who could get cut before training camp.
“Not sure how much this would be a surprise, but former starting running back Zamir White probably will be in a fight for a roster spot,” Bonsignore wrote.
At best, White is looking at the RB3 job, so getting a fresh start with a new team might be the best-case scenario for him.
Chip Kelly Talks Ashton Jeanty Stance
There’s been a lot of talk about Jeanty’s stance since the rookie revealed that the Raiders wanted him to change it. Many fans don’t understand why Las Vegas would want to change something that’s been working.
Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly gave some more clarity about the change.
“Let’s get that clarified,” Kelly told reporters in a recent press conference. “Deland McCullough, our running back coach, is in charge of stances, steps, alignments, assignments, and techniques. So he talked to him about that. I gave him an analogy of an athlete being in a bent-knee position to make a play, and that kind of got blown into. I haven’t told anybody on this team to be in any stances because I don’t coach a position. But it’s a bent-knee game.
“[I]f you look at the before the ball snapped in baseball, or the pitcher throwing the baseball, everybody’s got their knees bent. In any athletic sport you’re playing, you’ve got to bend your knees. And if you’ve got to run a flat route on Fred Warner, you’d better be in a position to run, because that dude can fly. So, all we’re trying to do is put guys in positions to make plays.”
Kelly Praises Jeanty
Though Kelly thinks a more traditional stance makes sense for Jeanty, he’s already very high on what the running back can do. He had a lot of good things to say about the rookie.
“His ability to sustain runs after contact, his contact balance is kind of a really rare quality,” Kelly said. “He’s got a low center of gravity, and I think it’s tough to get him down, and normally the first guy doesn’t.
“I think sometimes you get caught up in just looking at the numbers, but I think it was like 35 missed tackles he created in the Penn State game. Now, Penn State’s defense, we played against them [at Ohio State], they’re outstanding. That was a little bit different league for Boise at that time, but not for Ashton in terms of what he did. So, excited to see him.”
