Ashton Jeanty Camp Update — August 23: The Efficiency Test Gets Postponed

Ashton Jeanty's week produced no countable football. The Raiders held their first-team offense out of Thursday's 22-20 preseason win in Houston — receiver Jalen Nailor was the lone first-teamer to start on offense, per Sam Gordon at the Las Vegas Review-Journal — and no Jeanty carries appear in the game coverage we read. The joint-practice reporting from Tuesday's session against the Texans, where the offense struggled in the trenches against Houston's front per Adam Hill at the Review-Journal, did not chart him either. Last week we pointed at this exact week as the test — carry efficiency against a real front — and the test simply did not take place in public.

The backs who did play kept the room's momentum going. Rookie Mike Washington Jr. ran nine times for 56 yards with a 33-yarder, and Dylan Laube and Dare Ogunbowale scored the rushing touchdowns in the comeback, all against Houston reserves, per Levi Edwards at Raiders.com. None of that threatens the depth chart — it is depth proving it can play — but it does mean the cutdown decisions behind Jeanty on Sunday involve players with fresh film.

For anyone hearing this fresh, the June read on Jeanty was that his rookie volume was enormous and his efficiency was not, behind the worst run context in football, and the year-two bet is entirely on the rebuilt context — the new system, the rebuilt line — flipping his per-carry numbers. The first data point, nearly six a carry with the starters in the opener, leaned the right way. This week added nothing to either side of that ledger.

What to watch: whether Jeanty and the first team play in the finale, and the shape of the backfield rotation after Sunday's cutdown to 53. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._