Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty was carried off the practice field Sunday afternoon after appearing to injure his right knee during training camp, throwing a jolt of panic through a franchise that just built its entire 2026 offense around him.

According to ESPN's Ryan McFadden, Jeanty was diving to catch a low pass from quarterback Kirk Cousins during a team-period drill when he landed awkwardly and immediately grabbed at his leg. Trainers rushed onto the field, and Jeanty could not put any pressure on the knee as he was helped to the sideline and eventually off the practice facility grounds. Several Raiders players took a knee and bowed their heads in prayer as he was tended to, a scene multiple outlets covering the practice described as unusually somber for a mid-August workout.

No Diagnosis Yet, But the Timing Could Not Be Worse

As of Sunday evening, the Raiders had not released any imaging results, diagnosis or return timetable. That silence is doing nothing to calm a fan base already on edge: Las Vegas has one preseason game left, Thursday against San Francisco, before opening the regular season on September 13 against Miami. Rookie Mike Washington Jr. absorbed the rest of Jeanty's first-team reps once the injury happened.

"HE WAS DIVING FOR A CATCH AND LANDED AWKWARDLY. HE WAS HELPED OFF THE FIELD BY TRAINERS AND COULDN'T PUT ANY PRESSURE ON HIS RIGHT LEG." — Ryan McFadden, ESPN

The stakes are enormous. Jeanty arrived in Las Vegas as the No. 6 overall pick in the 2025 draft after a Boise State career that flirted with football history — he ran for 2,601 yards in his final college season, finished runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, and came within touching distance of Barry Sanders' FBS single-season rushing record. As a rookie last year, he started all 17 games for a Raiders team that finished 3-14, piling up 975 rushing yards and 346 receiving yards despite what multiple reports noted was the league's most hit-behind-the-line-of-scrimmage workload — a testament to how often Las Vegas's offensive line left him exposed.

That disastrous 2025 season is precisely why this preseason carried so much weight for the Raiders. Owner Mark Davis fired Pete Carroll after a single year and hired Klint Kubiak, fresh off coordinating Seattle's Super Bowl-winning offense, to rebuild the operation from scratch. Kubiak's staff signed veteran Kirk Cousins to a one-year, $11.3 million bridge deal and used the No. 1 overall pick on Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, banking on Jeanty as the steady offensive centerpiece while the passing game sorts itself out. Losing him for any real stretch — even before Week 1 — would blow a hole in that plan.

What's Next

The Raiders are expected to provide an update on Jeanty's condition as the week progresses, with an MRI likely to determine whether Las Vegas is dealing with a bruise the team can manage or something structural that threatens his availability for the opener. Until then, Washington Jr. and veteran depth pieces will see extended snaps in Thursday's preseason finale, and a fan base that endured a 3-14 collapse a year ago is left holding its breath over the one player it was counting on to change that story.