Ashton Jeanty's ankle sprain now 'low,' Week 1 vs. Dolphins in doubt

Sunday was ugly. Jeanty, the Raiders' 6th overall pick out of Boise State, went down at practice and couldn't put weight on his leg leaving the field, with teammates gathering as a group to check on him before he was helped off.

For a few hours it looked genuinely scary — Adam Schefter initially reported it as an apparent knee injury, which is the kind of word that makes an entire fanbase (and every fantasy draft board) freeze. Jeanty was the Heisman runner-up in 2024 after rushing for 2,601 yards at Boise State, second-most in a single FBS season ever behind Barry Sanders, and the Raiders handed him a fully guaranteed 4-year, $35.9 million deal as the centerpiece of the offense. Any real knee news would've been a gut punch before he'd even played a full rookie season.

By Sunday night the story flipped. Schefter and Ian Rapoport both reported it's believed to be a sprained ankle, not a long-term issue, with the Raiders reportedly breathing a sigh of relief. Fantasy Twitter did what fantasy Twitter does in the meantime — mourning rosters, ranking backup Mike Washington against the field, and generally treating a practice injury like a death in the family.

Monday brought more clarity from Schefter on the Pat McAfee Show: it's a sprained ankle, and while the team doesn't know if he'll miss time, it's not considered a long-term injury. Then Monday into Tuesday, the diagnosis kept getting more specific and, notably, less scary — Rapoport's latest is that the sprain is "more low than high," the better of the two ankle sprain grades in terms of typical recovery time.

Low ankle sprains generally heal faster than high ankle sprains, but faster doesn't mean instant — reports indicate Jeanty will sit out Thursday's preseason finale against the 49ers, and his status for the regular-season opener against the Dolphins will hinge on how he handles practice over the next 2 weeks. Raiders coach Klint Kubiak wasn't giving much away Tuesday, keeping it simple: he's "on the mend."

So the injury has gone from knee scare to season-threatening ankle scare to low-grade sprain in the span of about 48 hours, which is either genuinely good news or just the natural arc of an NFL injury rumor mill working itself out. Either way, Las Vegas can exhale for now — but until Jeanty is actually running routes in practice, Week 1 remains a real question mark, not a formality.