White
The Las Vegas Raiders like all NFL teams are required by the league to put out an unofficial depth chart prior to their preseason games. With Las Vegas scheduled to take on the Minnesota Vikings this Saturday, Aug. 10 at 4 p.m. ET, they released their first unofficial depth chart on Monday afternoon.
While not a surprise, former Fighting Scot star Zamir White was listed as the top running back for the Raiders with Alexander Mattison and Ameer Abdullah as his primary backups. Dylan Laube, Brittain Brown and Sincere McCormick round out the position for Las Vegas.
After getting just 17 carries and no targets his rookie year, White saw an increased workload during his sophomore campaign in 2023, particularly over the final month of the season when starter Josh Jacobs was out of action while dealing with a quad injury. White recorded his first career start and touchdown in a 63-21 Raiders win against the Chargers in week 15. He carried the ball 17 times for 69 yards in that game.
He would also surpass 100 yards rushing in the team’s week 16 and 18 contests against the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos, respectively. Over Las Vegas’ final four games, White totaled 84 carries and 397 rushing yards, giving him an impressive 4.7 yards per carry average during those contests. Those numbers extrapolated over an entire 17 game season would give White 357 carries and 1,687 rushing yards, which would’ve led the NFL in 2023 by over 200 yards.
While it remains to be seen if White will have that heavy of a workload this season, there is no question he earned the opportunity to be the starting running back for the Raiders over the course of a full season. His showing over the team’s final four games was a big reason they were comfortable allowing Josh Jacobs to leave for the Green Bay Packers in free agency.
Head Coach Antonio Pierce has not publicly said if White or any other Raiders starters will play on Saturday afternoon. Teams across the league tend to take different strategies when assessing how much to play who during exhibition contests as they balance the need for reps with the need to stay healthy for the regular season. The next time you can see White in a game that counts will be on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 4:05 p.m. ET when the Raiders travel to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers in week 1.