Silver Minings: Telesco sees Alexander Mattison as a ‘well-rounded’ player

General manager gave his thoughts on the Raiders newest running back in a recent podcast

The Las Vegas Raiders lost Josh Jacobs, their lead running back for the past five years. After finishing the season, Zamir White appears to be the next bell cow. He accumulated 397 yards on 4.7 YPC during his first four starts as an RB.

White displayed promise to end the year, but the new general manager, Tom Telesco, wants to make a committee. Ameer Abdullah was re-signed before free agency, and Alex Mattison was from the Minnesota Vikings.

Mattison was expected to replace Dalvin Cook but had a disappointing season. He finished the year losing carries to Ty Chandler, but the Raiders believe in his potential. Telesco, who is only 25 years old, likes what he adds to the backfield.

“He’s a pretty well-rounded player,” Telesco said. “I mean, he’s 220 pounds, he runs physical and hard, he runs [with] like a little bit of a violent style to him. The scheme that we’re going to run, he ran this very similar first couple years at Minnesota, so he has some familiarity with that.”

With the Raiders pushing to a zone scheme, Mattison has familiarity coming from Kevin O’Connell’s offense. He can come in right away and understand what the team wants to do in th run game. It could be a good blend in the Raiders running back room with other running backs in the mix.

In other Raiders news:

• Could the Raiders make their move for a quarterback?: The Las Vegas Review-Journal examines how the Raiders could add a quarterback in the draft.
• Carmen Cavalli passed away at 86: A member of the Raiders inaugural team dies at 86.
• Matt Holder’s mailbag of the week: Matt Holder answered questions from Raider Nation.