Raiders’ Jeanty makes stand on his stance: ‘I just think it’s different’

The best game of Ashton Jeanty’s young NFL career just happened to coincide with a switch back to the unorthodox stance he used at Boise State.

That may have just been a coincidence. Still, don’t expect the Raiders rookie running back to mix things up again anytime soon.

“It works, so no need to change it,” Jeanty said.

Jeanty showed how successful the stance can be in Week 4 by running for a career-high 138 yards on 21 carries in the Raiders’ loss to the Bears. Sixty-four of those yards came on a touchdown run in the second quarter.

That kind of production makes the debate about his unusual straight-up stance seem silly. His coaches are fully on board with Jeanty going back to what he’s comfortable with.

“I loved it,” coach Pete Carroll said.

Jeanty, 21, tried to ditch his college stance this offseason in favor of a more conventional crouched position. The goal was to create better leverage for when the Raiders ask him to pass protect.

It’s not the first time Jeanty got pushback on how he lined up in the backfield. There was plenty of skepticism about whether he could explode off the line of scrimmage and fight through tackles after appearing to start at a standstill.

“I just think it’s different,” Jeanty said. “So, a lot of times when something’s different, it doesn’t always come off to people that it could work that way.”

Jeanty understands the apprehension. But the more he did things his way, the more success he had.

He started using his straight-up stance during his sophomore year at Boise State. He ran for 1,347 yards and 19 touchdowns on 220 carries that season. Things just felt right.

“I don’t know, I just feel more comfortable that way, more relaxed,” Jeanty said.

His stance also gives him a better view of what’s going on in front of him.

“Just reading the defense,” Jeanty said. “I can’t really explain it more differently than that, but that’s just what I do.”

Things got even better his junior year.

Jeanty ran for 2,601 yards — the second-most all-time in a single season — and 30 touchdowns on 374 carries. He finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting and was picked by the Raiders with the No. 6 overall pick in April’s draft.

‘A matter of time’

Jeanty showed against the Bears his stance can work in the NFL as well.

“It’s a testament (to) coaches putting together a great game plan and then (the) O-line, receivers, tight ends doing a great job blocking and then making my job easy,” Jeanty said. “Then going out there (and) breaking tackles is what I’m best at.”

The Raiders felt Jeanty was close to breaking out. He had three runs of 10 or more yards in Week 3 against the Commanders.

“I just think we kind of felt like it was just a matter of time,” Carroll said. “He’s a tremendous player.”

The Raiders are looking for more of the same Sunday against the Colts. Both in how Jeanty lines up, and how he performs.

“As you guys can see as we’ve been saying all along, he’s such a dynamic player,” quarterback Geno Smith said. “He’s only growing as he goes along, and I think we all are as an offense. But I think what he showed and displayed is what we’ve always seen from him.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.