Raiders Running Back Called ’Soft As Charmin’ By Former Jets Coach

Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty has been the target of a lot of criticism lately, and some of it has been worse than others. 

He was demoted to receiving back last week against the New York Jets after his comments about certain Jets players who didn’t want to tackle, and former Jets coach Rex Ryan delivered some of the nastiest comments of all in a piece from Andrew Crane of the New York Post. 

Ryan has never been shy about going off on certain players to get attention focused on himself, and that’s certainly what a lot of this was about. He gave his version of how he would have handled the Jeanty situation, saying he would have told the running back he wasn’t going to take him out of the game “because you are horrible.”

The former coach didn’t stop there in his Jeanty rant. He said Jeanty was “about the worst draft pick in the last 20 years,” and Ryan punctuated that with “you stink.” 

Crain’s headline had Ryan calling Jeanty “soft as Charmin,” which is about as badly as you can criticize and decimate a player. Ryan’s rant certainly was way over the top, but perhaps the worst part about it was that it wasn’t entirely wrong. The comments were inflammatory in a typical Rex Ryan sort of way, but they also reflect what's happening on the field. 

Jeanty has been taking all this heat for a reason. He’s strong enough to break tackles, and he can do that if he gets the ball out in space. But getting there on his own is another matter entirely, and Jeanty often gets swallowed whole while trying to find a running lane. 

The party line in Las Vegas last year is that this was about the Raiders offensive line, which was horrible. The line has been marginally better at times, but Jeanty still gets overwhelmed on most of his runs. 

The most damning part of this is rookie Mike Washington Jr., who was drafted in the fourth round by the Raiders despite his sketchy history of knee issues. Washington is running behind the same line as Jeanty, but he gets the three yards that are there some of the time, and he’s been able to get bounce some plays outside. 

That makes Jeanty an overdrafted receiving back, which is what Kubiak turned him into on Sunday against the Jets. There are those who think Jeanty won’t bounce back, and they might be right about the Raiders’ second-year running back.