At the end of last season, the Raiders really thought they had something in Zamir White. He came in for an injured Josh Jacobs and had some great looking performances over the final four games.
My response was simply to slow down a bit on the talk of him making Jacobs expendable. If for no other reason than what we saw was a running back who was completely fresh come in and face worn down defenses down the stretch. I wanted to see how he performed against fresh defenses and how he held up over a full NFL season.
Well, we didn’t have to wait a full season to see White struggle to get things going in 2024. He fumbled twice in four games with no touchdowns while averaging 3.1 yards per carry. The team then switched to Alexander Mattison as the starter.
White missed a couple games with injury, but has been back the past couple weeks. Meanwhile the run game has been inconsistent, including this past Sunday when the Raiders running backs averaged less than a yard per carry.
“I think [Alexander] Mattison’s still the starter, but we got to get Zamir [White] going,” Antonio Pierce said. “I mean, Zamir, I hate to keep referring, but last year we saw a lot of positive stuff from Zamir and seen a little bit of it earlier in this season. I think he’s just got to get out of the funk as well. I know those fumbles early on really got to him, then he had the injury, but it’s always good when we got him going downhill. I mean, he’s a big gentleman who’s physical, and obviously, I don’t think you ever see one running back in. You look at the whole league and everybody’s using two backs.”
The Chiefs loss was Mattison’s roughest outing of the season. He averaged 1.1 yards per carry and failed to get into the end zone despite four tries from inside the five. So, naturally the discussion has turned to whether White can help get things going.
The problem is, no matter how Mattison has looked this season — some good, some bad, depending on the opponent — White has always looked worse.
Now, maybe White’s had enough rest the past few weeks that he can provide a boost with fresh legs. It’s worth a shot. Got to try everything in your arsenal, rigtht?
