Washington talk about forming a thunder and lightning duo with Jeanty<\/a> in the desert.<\/p>\n\u201cI mean, I\u2019m super excited to get rolling with him. All I could think of is thunder and lightning,\u201d the rookie running back said after being drafted. \u201cSo, super excited to be the one-two punch with him. And to really, like I said before, be a sponge and learn from him also at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s assumed that Washington is the thunder in this scenario as the bigger back compared to Jeanty (5-foot-8 and 211 pounds), the distinction works flipped, too. The incumbent running back has the low center of gravity and power to break through tackles while Washington has the speed and quickness to zap a defense with this speed \u2014 as both ball carrier and pass catcher.<\/p>\n
And therein lies one of the big areas of opportunity for Washington: While he brings prototypical size to the table, running to that size \u2014 with more aggression and physicality \u2014 will be vital jumping into the pro game.<\/p>\n
While he\u2019s shown the ability to run through defensive backs at Arkansas, New Mexico State, and Buffalo during his collegiate career, doing so against NFL DBs, linebackers, and defensive linemen will go a long way to dictating how Washington acclimates to the professional game. Add into that pass protection, again, Washington has imposing stature, but needs to be equally as physical and aggressive blocking incoming defenders looking to wreck the quarterback as he is with the ball in his hands.<\/p>\n
But on potential, Washington\u2019s addition to the Raiders offensive backfield represents an upgrade over what the team currently has and what it had last season (super veteran Raheem Mostert and Zamir White).<\/p>\n
The Raiders\u2019 earlier fourth-round selection of cornerback Jermod McCoy (101st overall and the fourth stanza\u2019s opening pick) was very close to be my favorite Silver & Black choice. Carrying a consensus first-round grade heading into the 2026 draft, the talented Tennessee defender had quite the slide due to long-term concerns regarding a knee injury.<\/p>\n
The Volunteers\u2019 shutdown corner tore his ACL in 2025 and the serious concern lies with a \u201cbone plug\u201d procedure used to repair a cartilage defect. Any signs of knee degeneration will scare of the 32 teams, hence why McCoy wasn\u2019t selected until Day 3. However, McCoy noted he feels good, Las Vegas will do it\u2019s due diligence medically as they proceed.<\/p>\n
If McCoy regains his 2023 (at Oregon State) and 2024 (at Tennessee) form, the Raiders landed a first-round talent that can shadow and shutdown receivers while taking the ball away in the fourth round. Snaring six interceptions in two collegiate seasons along with 16 pass deflections, McCoy has ideal size (nearly 6-foot-1 and 188 pounds), speed, and physicality to be a thief at cornerback.<\/p>\n
A smooth corner before his ACL tear, McCoy combines athleticism, instincts that profile as an ideal boundary\/perimeter corner with the ability to cover the slot, if needed. For the Raiders, that \u201cif\u201d becoming reality would be quite the boon and steal.<\/p>\n
The Silver & Black are no strangers to fourth-round fliers on prospects coming off an injury.<\/p>\n
The team opened the 2007 fourth round by selecting Louisville running back Michael Bush who missed all of his 2007 season in college recovering from a compound fracture in his right leg suffered on September 3, 2006 against Kentucky. Bush went on to form a thunder and lightning duo with McFadden and rushed for 2,642 yards and 21 touchdowns on 632 carries while adding 879 yards and one touchdown on 91 receptions for the Raiders from 2008 to 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The duo of John Spytek and Klint Kubiak completed the 2026 NFL Draft excursion this past weekend with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,7275,2492,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-880109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-las-vegas","10":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders-depth-chart","12":"tag-las-vegas-raiders-draft","13":"tag-lasvegas","14":"tag-lasvegasraiders","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116502823077720170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}