Las Vegas Raiders rookie running back Ashton Jeanty is expected to step in and immediately make a big impact on this team, which ranked dead last in running the football last season. However, recently, a lot of attention has been paid to the news that Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly has asked Jeanty to change his pre-snap stance.
Jeanty was known for standing straight up in the backfield prior to the snap of the football, but Kelly and the Raiders asked him to be in more of a traditional bent-knee stance. Considering Jeanty rushed for the second-most yards in a season in college football history, some questioned why the Raiders would want to alter that, but the coordinator recently clarified why.
Kelly first clarified that running backs coach Deland McCullough is in charge of stances and things of that nature and was the one who spoke to Jeanty about the switch. The Raiders offensive coordinator then added that being ready in a bent-knee stance is standard for athletes across all sports, via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk:
“Let’s get that clarified,” Kelly said, via transcript from the team. “Deland McCullough, our running back coach, is in charge of stances, steps, alignments, assignments, and techniques. So he talked to him about that. I gave him an analogy of an athlete being in a bent-knee position to make a play, and that kind of got blown into. I haven’t told anybody on this team to be in any stances because I don’t coach a position. But it’s a bent-knee game.
“[I]f you look at the before the ball snapped in baseball, or the pitcher throwing the baseball, everybody’s got their knees bent. In any athletic sport you’re playing, you’ve got to bend your knees. And if you’ve got to run a flat route on Fred Warner, you’d better be in a position to run, because that dude can fly. So, all we’re trying to do is put guys in positions to make plays.”
It is clear that Kelly and the Raiders want Jeanty to be in the best position to make plays and succeed, and feel this is something minor, but still effective in helping him be a better back. But regardless, Kelly is very excited and feels Jeanty is a special player:
“So, I really don’t think it’s that big a deal,” Kelly said. “But he’s awesome, and he’s such a coachable guy that you can do a lot of things with him. I think he can play in the slot, he can play in the backfield, he can do a lot of different things. So, he’s special.”
In the end, as long as Jeanty gives a boost to this Raiders run game and helps this team succeed when the season begins, no one will be talking about his pre-snap stance or whether Kelly and the Raiders were right or wrong in getting Jeanty to change it.
Raiders rookie Ashton Jeanty paid a large sum to Daniel Carlson for No. 2 jersey
One thing that won’t change for Ashton Jeanty with the Raiders is his jersey number, as he will continue to wear the number 2, but it cost him quite a bit of money to get that.
The rookie revealed that he had to pay kicker Daniel Carlson a large sum of money, and while he didn’t reveal the exact figure, he did say that you could buy “a nice Mercedes GLE,” and those run anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000, so it was not cheap.
The post Raiders News: Chip Kelly Clarifies Reasoning On Ashton Jeanty Stance Switch appeared first on Raiders Newswire.