Seeing as the Week 17 matchup between the 2-13 New York Giants and 2-13 Las Vegas Raiders has been appropriately nicknamed the ‘Tank Bowl’, there aren’t many storylines to keep tabs on outside of the No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 NFL draft. However, Raiders’ rookie running back Ashton Jeanty does have a chance at achieving a season-long milestone by rushing for 1,000 yards.
Granted, it will take quite a career performance and then some to accomplish this on Sunday. Jeanty heads into the game with 828 rushing yards on the campaign, meaning he needs 172 yards to add the comma to his total. That’s 34 yards more than his single-game high for the year, a 138-yard outing in Week 4 against the Chicago Bears. Even so, accomplishing the feat against New York is attainable for the Boise State product.
Jeanty is coming off a huge game where he rushed for 128 yards against a Houston Texans’ defense that ranks fourth in the NFL for opponent rushing yards per game (96.2), per Team Rankings. Meanwhile, the Giants are one of the worst defenses in the league against the ground game, giving up 150.9 ypg, the second-most in pro football. Also, the G-Men’s defense ranks dead last in EPA per rush (0.16, per SumerSports) and team run defense graded from Pro Football Focus (41.3).
So, it will still take a historic day from the No. 6 overall pick to cross the 1,000-yard threshold, but it isn’t out of the question. And that would be an impressive accomplishment considering the circumstances.
The Raiders’ offensive line issues in 2025 have been well-documented, as 703 yards or nearly 85 percent of Jeanty’s rushing total have come after contact, per PFF. That’s on top of playing for two offensive coordinators after Chip Kelly was fired after Week 12. Also, Bucky Irving of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is the only rookie running back to rush for 1,000 yards or more since 2023.
As a result, we’ll be on Jeanty watch for this week’s gameday discussion over on The FEED. The game kicks off at 1:05 p.m. PST and will air on CBS (check your local listings). I look forward to talkin’ some ball with y’all!
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