Zeus on the loose: Can White reward faith Raiders have in him?

Running back must show impressive four-game stretch to close out 2023 wasn’t a mere aberration

Zamir White’s four-game performance at the tail end of last season certainly can be seen as catching lightning in a bottle. Gone were the vision growing pains that once saw the running back gallop into the back of his blockers.

What the Las Vegas Raiders got instead from their fourth-round pick was a decisive and determined tailback that produced like a lead back in place of then usual-starter Josh Jacobs — 84 carries, 397 yards, and one touchdown, and nine catches for 60 yards — in the final four games of the 2023 campaign.

Now comes the hard part: Consistency.

White — dubbed Zeus — is going to be on the loose this season and the Georgia product must prove that four-game stretch wasn’t an aberration. It’s the new Silver & Black reality, especially with Jacobs no longer a Raider (he’s now a Green Bay Packer). While we don’t know what kind of offer Las Vegas extended to their former five-year starting running back, it’s clear the team had a number and wasn’t going to exceed it. And now the Raiders move forward with White, who at 6-feet and 215 pounds, brings his own power and speed component to the position.

“There were just certain things that you’re just like, all right this can happen. You wish it doesn’t, but again it’s the nature of the beast, every team deals with it,” Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce said when asked about dealing with the contract side and business nature of football, back at the Annual League Meetings a week ago. “You got to move on and move forward. The good thing about it, Zamir [White] got a great opportunity last year. We’ve seen what he’s able to do, and now he’s going to be a front runner along with Alex Mattison.”

That front runner tagline is indicative Zeus is going to be given his shot at proving he can be a consistent season-long producer versus a feel-good year-end story. While general manager Tom Telesco hinted at the Raiders going with a by-committee approach with his comments regarding the importance of having a stable of running backs who can do different things, it’ll be interesting to see how things do play out this year. That was a similar approach the previous regime initially had in mind with Jacobs — hence the addition of White in the 2022 NFL Draft — but Jacobs simply ran away with the RB1 gig negating the need for another tailback to get carries.

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White may or may not have the same ability to catch out of the backfield. But his pass protecting is improving and he’s a strong downhill runner which embodies the hatred, violence, and pain mantra Pierce harkened on when his Raiders topped the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead on Christmas Day.

But that’s where adding Mattison and re-signing veteran Ameer Abdullah comes in.

The Raiders didn’t push in all their chips on White alone as Abdullah and Mattison can play the third-down back role that can either carry the rock or run patterns out of the backfield as receiving options.

That all said, it appears White is going to get the first crack to become the top running back and if he replicates the level of commitment, discipline, and production he showcased in that road win against Kansas City, Las Vegas will be in a good place.

Pierce and Telesco are big on competition and White must earn the role of lead back. Mattison comes over from the Minnesota Vikings where he spent five seasons after getting picked in the third round of the 2019 draft out of Boise State. The 5-foot-11 and 215-pound tailback produced a career-best 700 yards on 180 carries in 2023 for the Vikings (zero touchdowns) along with 192 yards on 30 receptions (three touchdowns). Mattison churned out 66 yards on 10 carries in Minnesota’s tight 3-0 win over Las Vegas in Week 13.

White Mattison’s abilities as a receiver took a dip in 2023 — 44 targets, 30 receptions, seven drops for a 68.2 percent catch rate. He had a catch rate in the 80 percentile in the prior four seasons, for reference.

Abdullah, who may be smaller at 5-foot-9 and 203 pounds, is a trusted third-round type for his ability to run or catch out of the backfield. He’s no pushover in pass protection, either and can be special teams contributor. But he hasn’t surpassed the 100 yards rushing since 2021.

The Raiders do have three other running backs on the roster: Brittain Brown (26 years old), Tyreik McAllister (25), and Sincere McCormick (23). And the upcoming 2024 draft (or shortly after it) may had more talent into the running back room.

Suffice it to say, but White’s success — or any other running back for that matter — heavily relies on how the offensive line performs. James Cregg’s task of shaping a starting group up front is a heavy burden with reverberating effects while the plays Luke Getsy installs as offensive coordinator looms large, too. The assumption is a zone blocking scheme is going to be in play as that a system Cregg cut his teeth in as he went up the coaching tree. But camp will give us plenty of insight on the scheme and style both Cregg and Getsy are going to use.

And plenty of eyes will be on whether White can reward the Raiders for having faith in him.