From horse farm to training camp: Zamir White to carry heavy load for Raiders

The alarm sounded at 6 a.m. every day, and Zamir White had no time to hit snooze button.

There was work to be done on the farm, or more specifically, in the barn. While back home in Laurinburg, N.C. for the last several months, the 24-year-old, third-year Raiders running back started his morning by caring for his stable of horses.

He’d make sure they were taken care of before starting his routine of more football-specific training. Once that was done, it was right back to the farm and the horses, this time more for riding than feeding.

“My offseason was gym, running and horses,” White said earlier this summer. “That’s all I did.”

The Raiders report to training camp ahead of the upcoming season this morning in Costa Mesa, Calif. It’s the start of a monthlong period most NFL players dread because of the long, intense hours required to get ready for the real games to start in September.

But the practice schedule should comparatively be a breeze for White considering how active he lives on an everyday basis as part of a “country strong” lifestyle he takes pride in. He needs training camp to be a boon, too.

All signs point towards White being the focal point of Las Vegas’ new-look offense behind now-permanent head coach Antonio Pierce and new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.

The Jack Hammett Sports Complex in Southern California, which the Raiders paid $600,000 to upgrade as part of an agreement to hold initial practices away from their Henderson headquarters, will stage the first look.

White attended all of the Raiders’ offseason team activities and minicamp in May and June, respectively, but Getsy was the first to admit that it wasn’t, “the time for running backs.”

It’s much more difficult to drill the running game in practices where the players are only permitted to wear shorts and helmets. Getsy said he’d have a much better sense of what he had in White in training camp — especially when full pads come on Aug. 6 after a weeklong ramp-up period.

“You saw him when he came in this offseason — he looked right, he’s built right and he’s a strong, powerful man,” Pierce said of White in June. “But then there’s just an understanding that just because you got the job now doesn’t mean it can’t be taken.”

White earned the top spot on the running back depth chart with a historic debut as a starter at the end of last season that saw Las Vegas win three of its final four games. He became the first player in Raiders’ history to run for more than 100 yards in two of his first four starts while former franchise cornerstone Josh Jacobs sat out with an injury.

The Green Bay Packers wooed Jacobs in the offseason with a relatively massive contract — $12 million per year for four seasons — that the Raiders weren’t willing to approach. The potential of White likely played into their decision-making in cutting ties with one of the top running backs in franchise history.

White averaged .8 yards more per carry than Jacobs last season. As a starter, the gap was even wider with White logging a 1.2-yard advantage over Jacobs.

Las Vegas also signed longtime backup Alexander Mattison away from the Vikings in free agency and re-upped with third-down back Ameer Abdullah, but there’s an understanding in the running back room that this season sets up as White’s show.

“Ownership,” Mattison said when asked what he’s seen out of White early during their time as teammates. “He’s a guy who’s been in a position similar to where I was over in Minnesota with Dalvin (Cook), and for him to step up and be in a different type of mindset, is something I’ve seen from him.”

Mattison has spent the majority of his career in a Kubiak-style offense similar to the one Getsy is employing in Las Vegas. Mattison said he's used the familiarity to help out and expedite White’s learning curve with the playbook and terminology.

It's also made Mattison realize how much White could shine in the scheme.

With Getsy at the helm as offensive coordinator the last two years, the Chicago Bears ran the ball on more than 52% of their plays — by far the most in the NFL. That’s not guaranteed to repeat in Las Vegas as Getsy has vowed to build around his personnel, but most evidence indicates he’s sticking with a run-heavy approach.

Pierce has repeatedly stated that's the mentality he prefers. The partiality may have even grown stronger after both quarterbacks competing for the starting job, Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell, struggled mightily in minicamp.

“It’s just the physical demand of that position for 17 games,” Pierce said when asked about White taking the next step. “Let's say he's up into 200-300 carries — I don't know, but let's just say it's up there. That's going to be the most he's had in a long time. So, it’s how he takes care of his body.”

Injuries can affect anyone, and ACL tears in both high school and college were widely cited as one reason why White fell to a fourth-round draft pick in 2022 out of the University of Georgia.

But there’s not much concern that White failed to do everything he could to condition his body and stay in shape during the offseason. Multiple coaches marveled at his bulked-up physique during minicamp.

White’s focus was also honed in.

“I’m in this new role and it’s a whole new ground for me,” White said. “So, just keep grinding it out, working, learning from the backs in the room and just progress.”

The way White progresses away from the Raiders is just a lot different from the way his teammates go about it. While most of them were training in plush cutting-edge facilities, he was pushing hay bales and sprinting through rural fields.

White’s horses provided more work than ever this offseason too. That’s because he added two more, one named Zeus after his nickname and another named Queen, to bring his total to 14 horses.

Buying horses is how White treated himself after reaching the NFL, and how he’s continued to splurge after his first couple seasons. If he capitalizes on the opportunities this year as strongly as the Raiders suspect he’s capable of doing, White may soon be able to afford so many horses that he needs to build a bigger paddock.

“Just with time and him trusting the process, and us coaches putting him in the right position to be successful, man, he is going to flourish,” Raiders running backs coach Carnell “Cadillac” Williams said.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or