Updated May 28, 2026
Ashton Jeanty just got a massive green light every Year-2 running back dreams of. New Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak walked off the OTA field on May 20 and told reporters he wants to “put a lot of pressure on Ashton”, that the best player has got to play, and that the model he is pointing toward is Christian McCaffrey’s snap share. That is the closest a sitting NFL coach gets to saying out loud what dynasty managers have been begging to hear: feed the young RB, do not go easy on him, do not split him with another back. The Ashton Jeanty fantasy 2026 conversation just got a massive bullish indicator.
Coach-speak is usually noise. This was not. Kubiak, who was officially named the Raiders’ 25th head coach on February 9 after winning Super Bowl LX as Seattle’s offensive coordinator, was specific. He name-dropped McCaffrey’s snap percentage, said the great backs do not want to come off the field, and added that he wants to “continue to challenge Ashton and get more out of him”.
The McCaffrey name drop is the tell. Kubiak was on the 2023 49ers staff when McCaffrey ran for 1,459 yards and won Offensive Player of the Year on an 80-plus percent snap share. He is not pulling that comp out of a hat. He is telling the room he has built a workhorse offense before, and he intends to do it again with Jeanty. Kubiak just warned Jeanty to brace for an intense 2026 workload.
The starting point is already good. As a rookie behind one of the league’s worst run-blocking lines and an interim staff, Jeanty led every NFL rookie with 975 rushing yards, 1,321 scrimmage yards, and 10 total touchdowns across five rushing and five receiving scores. He became the fifth player in NFL history to clear five-plus TDs in both categories in his rookie season. The 3.7 yards per carry was ugly, but the volume was real: 266 carries with the defenses loading the box with nobody else to worry about.
That 78 percent snap rate is the number to keep front of mind. McCaffrey ran 83 percent of San Francisco’s snaps last season. Kubiak’s stated goal is to close that gap. Add a respectable receiving floor to a back already projected to lead the NFL in carries and you get a true three-down profile.
The supporting cast is what makes the McCaffrey comp work and not just a wish. The quarterback room now runs through Kirk Cousins and first-overall rookie Fernando Mendoza, with Aidan O’Connell behind them. Brock Bowers is the most efficient tight end in football coming off a 64-680-7 season in 12 games and is the kind of high-leverage middle-of-field threat that pulls a safety off the run fit. New center Tyler Linderbaum and the return of LT Kolton Miller from injury should raise the floor of that 3.7 YPC heading into year 2 for Jeanty.
The complementary back is fourth-rounder Mike Washington Jr., who ran the fastest 40 (4.33) of any back at the Combine. That looks scary on paper, but Kubiak addressed it directly: a quality second back is nice, but the best player has got to play. Translation – Washington is a change-of-pace, not a snap share thief. Dylan Laube stays in the third-down conversation but more as insurance than a real workload threat.
Jeanty is going off the board at PPR RB5 in 2026 startup drafts, with an overall ADP of 9th. Yahoo’s analyst desk explicitly framed Kubiak’s quote as the moment that “sent Ashton Jeanty’s 2026 stock through the roof”.
The ceiling above that ADP is the part the consensus has not priced in yet. RB5 implies “low-end RB1 with risk.” Kubiak’s plan implies “if any of this lands, he is RB1 overall.”
If Kubiak gets his snap-share goal, Jeanty is staring at a 290+ carries, 75+ targets, 55+ catches line. That is the McCaffrey 2023 archetype – top-five carries plus a real receiving role. With a healthier line and a creative play-caller, the efficiency lift alone buys him another 200 yards on the same volume. The receiving leap is where the McCaffrey upside actually lives, and it is the cleanest line of vision to RB1 overall.
The talent has never been the question. Jeanty’s Year-1 SPS was a perfect 100.0, the highest prospect score possible. The only thing missing from the rookie campaign was the offense around him.
The Raiders finished last in PPG (14.1) and total yards (245.2). A 32nd-ranked offense does not become a top-10 offense in one offseason just because the new HC said the right words at OTAs. If Cousins regresses anymore than he already has, if Mendoza doesn’t prove worthy of the 1.01, if Bowers’ PCL doesn’t fully heal – Jeanty’s TD share gets squeezed by negative game script all the way back to the McCaffrey’s Panther era. The path to RB1 overall is real. The path to “elite volume on a bad team that throws him 70 targets out of necessity” is also real. Either way, his floor is worth investing in and the long-term upside is undeniable, whether it comes true in 2026 or beyond.
Buy. The McCaffrey-snap-share comp is unusual coach-speak from a head coach who has actually built that offense, the offensive line is materially better, and the SPS grade still says elite. If you can grab Jeanty at the 1.05-1.08 in startups or pry him from a frustrated dynasty manager worried about the rookie production, you are paying for low-end RB1 and getting the chance at the top RB in football for the next 5 years.
Don’t just draft for this year. Gain the knowledge needed to position yourself to secure your future with SPS rookie data.
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