The Las Vegas Raiders are once again in the middle of a disappointing season. Entering Week 9, the team is sitting at 2-5 and looks set to endure a fourth-straight losing season in 2025. When you’ve struggled as long as the Raiders have, it’s easy to see how the team culture could suffer as a result.
Star rookie running back Ashton Jeanty recently made headlines when he acknowledged the team has had a losing culture “for a long time.” Former Raiders quarterback Derek Carr didn’t disagree with Jeanty’s sentiment, but he did issue a challenge to the young star.
Derek Carr Wants to See Ashton Jeanty Step Up
Recently on the “Home Grown with David & Derek Carr Podcast,” Carr addressed Jeanty’s comments. The veteran quarterback explained that nobody knows about the Raiders’ struggles better than he does, but it’s up to the people in the building to fix it.
“It has been hard there for a long time,” Carr explained. “Trust me, no one knows more than me, big dog. The only people that can fix it are the ones in the building. You have to set the culture, you have to set the standard.”
As Carr mentioned, he knows plenty about the team’s struggles. Carr was drafted by the Raiders in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft and went 10-22 over his first two seasons with the team. Carr would eventually get the Raiders to the playoffs twice in his nine-year tenure, but there were plenty of mediocre-to-bad seasons in between.
On Wednesday, Jeanty was asked about the former quarterback’s comments.
“I take pride in being a leader and trying to make things better and bring others along,” Jeanty explained. “All I can really continue to do is be an example and control the things that I can control.”
Being a leader isn’t something new for Jeanty. The running back was a captain in college at Boise State and was one of the best players in the country in 2024.
So far in 2025, Jeanty has played in all seven games, accumulating 445 rushing yards and three touchdowns. The rookie has also caught 15 passes for 86 yards and two more touchdowns and has shown in flashes why he was the top running back in the 2025 draft. PFSN’s NFL RB Impact ranking gives Jeanty a 74.1 grade for his performance thus far.
If the Raiders are going to improve, though, Jeanty will have to keep performing on the field and leading by example off of it.
