Silver And Black Pride
How does the rookie stack up to the rest of the running backs in the division?
Silver and Black Pride is continuing its annual summer tradition of ranking players in the AFC West for each position group to see where the Las Vegas Raiders stand heading into the 2025 season. The quarterbacks were up first, and now it’s time to stay in the offensive backfield and look at the running backs.
This is an interesting position group for the Raiders as rookie Ashton Jeanty is expected to receive the lion’s share of the carries in Las Vegas this fall. The No. 6 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft has plenty of talent and potential, but is that enough to unseat the other backs in the division?
2024 Stats: 263 carries, 1,043 yards (4.0 ypc), 6 TDs
At a position where availability and consistency are often hard to come by with one player, it’s a mystery why the perception of Harris isn’t higher. All the guy has done since entering the league four years ago is play in 17 games and rush for over 1,000 yards every season. Yet many seem to dismiss Harris, and he was only able to garner a one-year, $5.25 million contract in the offseason. Regardless, the former Steeler has done enough to earn the top spot among AFC West running backs heading into the season. Granted, Omarion Hampton is projected to put up a strong fight for the Chargers’ starting running back spot this fall.
2024 Stats: 195 carries, 905 yards (4.6 ypc), 9 TDs
Dobbins is the most interesting/confusing running back in the AFC West. He’s been productive when healthy, but the latter part of that statement has been a major problem throughout his career. The Ohio State product has missed more games than he’s played in, sitting out 47 contests and participating in 37. Even in a bounce-back campaign where he finished second in Comeback Player of the Year voting, Dobbins was inactive for four weeks. If the Charger-turned-Bronco can stay healthy in 2025, he could lead the division in rushing yards.
2024 Stats: 83 carries, 310 yards (3.7 ypc), 1 TD
Heading into the 2024 season, Pacheco was the No. 1 running back in the division. However, he slid down a couple of spots after missing 10 games due to injury and recording a career low 3.7 yards per carry. Still, the 2022 seventh-round pick has a large enough body of work to gain some respect in this year’s preseason rankings after logging over 2,100 yards from scrimmage and 14 total touchdowns during his first two years in the league.
2024 Stats (college): 374 carries, 2,601 yards (7.0 ypc), 29 TDs
To be clear, while there are some projections involved with these preseason rankings, what each player has done in the NFL carries more weight....
