Ashton Jeanty ‘ready to play that Raider brand of football’ as rookie minicamp kicks off

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Five minutes was all it took.

Back in May 2021, Ashton Jeanty was a high school junior slot receiver with more catches than carries to his name. Despite a lack of experience running the ball, he had barely started his recruiting workout at Boise State before then-head coach Andy Avalos offered him a scholarship to play running back.

“That was something I’ll always remember from being recruited — doing that workout,” Jeanty told The Athletic over the phone Tuesday. “They were kind of like, ‘Take it easy,’ but I was like, ‘Tch, man, come on, let’s go. This is what I do.’ Obviously, I killed the drills, so they had nothing more to see.”

Jeanty committed to Boise State that September and became a superstar across the next three seasons. The Las Vegas Raiders became so enamored with his talent that they drafted him with the sixth overall pick last month. As Avalos watched his former player walk across the stage, he thought back to the spring session when he realized just how special he was.

“You can see it now, but it was his body control, his change of direction, the leverage that he runs with,” Avalos said. “The few things that we had him do, you could instantly tell he was a powerful runner.”

Last season, Jeanty came up just 21 yards short of breaking Barry Sanders’ FBS single-season rushing record. With that historic production, an NFL frame at 5-foot-9, 211 pounds and an uncanny ability to make defenders miss, break tackles and create explosive plays, he went from an unheralded recruit to being talked about as a generational prospect.

It was once commonplace for running backs to go as early in the draft as Jeanty did, but it was the highest a team had drafted one since the New York Giants took Saquon Barkley at pick No. 2 in 2018. The position had been devalued as teams passed the ball more than ever, but Barkley led the charge to restore their value by putting together a historic season of his own and helping the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl win.

Barkley had plenty of help — the Eagles are loaded on both sides of the ball — but he proved there’s nothing wrong with making a significant investment in an elite ballcarrier. The Raiders believe wholeheartedly that’s what they’ve found in Jeanty.

“The word is dynamic,” coach Pete Carroll said last month. “He has the ability to do all of it. He can run with power. He can run in short-yardage areas and find the spacing he needs to make the plays. And he’s got that marvelous ability that, on any play, he can score.”

Carroll knows greatness at running back — he coached Reggie Bush in college and Marshawn Lynch in the NFL — and he made it clear that Jeanty has that type of potential. That puts a lot of pressure on Jeanty to perform from day one, but that’s something the 21-year-old embraces.

“I’m ready to be a pro and show everybody why I was picked where I was picked at,” Jeanty said. “And just get ready to play that Raider brand of football.”

It’s official ✌️ Deuces up@AshtonJeanty2 | #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/mxSZxftzcA

— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) May 2, 2025

Had Jeanty grown up in his birthplace of Jacksonville, Fla., he could’ve had a traditional football story. But his father was a commanding officer in the Navy, so he moved to Georgia and Virginia before landing in Aversa, Italy, at age 12. Naples Middle High School didn’t have a football program for middle schoolers, so Jeanty went about a year and a half without playing organized ball.

“I had to practice on my own and stay in shape and play other sports,” Jeanty said, “but I always had in the back of mind: ‘Just get ready.’”

Jeanty played running back as a high school freshman in Italy, but then his family moved to Frisco, Texas, before his sophomore year. Once he enrolled at Lone Star High, the coaching staff told him there wouldn’t be a role for him on offense. He was determined to get on the field, though, so he moved to defense. He became a Swiss Army knife of sorts, lining up on the defensive line, at safety and on special teams.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Jeanty said. “They saw my athleticism and that I could make tackles, be a great player on special teams and even get on the D-line and disrupt some drop-back passes and get after the quarterback. The common theme was I just loved football, and I wanted to be on the field one way or another and try to help the team win.”

As a junior, Jeanty was able to show what he could do with the ball in his hands as a slot receiver. He caught 55 passes for 816 yards and seven touchdowns. And although his rushing attempts were limited, he showed he could be effective out of the backfield, averaging 8.7 yards per carry.

“I’m honestly grateful that I was able to play receiver for a year,” Jeanty said, “because it’s made me so much more well-rounded as a running back. Especially in today’s game, there’s a higher demand for running backs to be able to catch the ball and run routes.”

Jeanty hadn’t started a single game at running back going into his senior year, so he was still flying under the radar. That was no longer the case after he rushed for 1,843 yards and scored 41 total touchdowns.

That season reaffirmed that Jeanty had what it took to play at the college level, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He had bigger goals in mind.

The coaching staff at Boise State knew Jeanty would be a difference-maker, but he still had a lot to learn. Not only did he need to absorb the scheme, but he also had limited experience playing running back. He worked with position coach Keith Bhonapha to improve his footwork, patience, vision, pad level and blocking fundamentals.

“In high school, you really can just get the ball, run and do whatever, right?” Jeanty said. “But in college, you’ve actually got to go through a process, go through your reads, understand what the defense is giving you and be able to analyze that quickly. Another thing is the speed of the game; on each level, it gets faster and faster. So your process and your level of thinking has to improve as well.”

While Jeanty was a fast learner, that developmental process contributed to Boise State sticking with veteran starting running back George Holani. As Jeanty began receiving more live carries, the coaches realized he was a little too eager to take punishment.

“He needed to understand that you don’t always have to take those hits,” Bhonapha said last month. “Sometimes, he’s trying to run guys over, and it’s like, ‘Man, if you shake this dude off or step on his toes and give him a jump cut or a speed cut or just transition him, you’re going to break that tackle. He’s going to miss that arm tackle.’ And that was the thing I felt like he was able to do pretty fast. … Sometimes those guys hit a plateau, and he just continued to excel.”

Why not. Here is 64 minutes and 31 seconds of Ashton Jeanty running the football. pic.twitter.com/0W2Fr34AiU

— Boise State Football (@BroncoSportsFB) April 15, 2025

Jeanty’s breakout game came in the 2022 Frisco Bowl against North Texas. Entering that game, his career highs were 19 carries and 109 rushing yards. But after Holani went down with an injury early on, Boise State fed him with 28 carries. He turned that opportunity into 178 rushing yards and a touchdown in the Broncos’ 35-32 victory.

“I just felt real confident going into that game,” Jeanty said. “Being the RB2, you never know when the other guy may go down and you’ll have to take the bulk of the carries. I just always kept that in my mind and prepared like I was RB1 each and every week. So when my opportunity came, I could maximize it.”

That success only intensified Jeanty’s drive. He remained a relentless worker in the offseason, preparing his body for the greater workload he knew he’d shoulder as a sophomore.

That season, Jeanty got 220 carries for 1,347 yards and 14 touchdowns, but that was nothing compared to what would come next. As a junior, he jumped from about 18.3 carries per game in 2023 to 26.7 in 2024. Maintaining efficiency and durability with that type of volume took a lot of work behind the scenes. How did he do it?

“Just taking my preparation to the next level,” Jeanty said. “Most importantly, taking care of my body right. Just being available to take 30 carries every week and understanding that it’s me versus 11. Once the ball snaps, there’s 11 guys coming after me. So, it was just having that mentality that nobody’s going to take me down.”

As impressive as rushing for 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns in a single season is, some may view the number of carries Jeanty racked up as a negative. It’s important to remember, however, that he was late to transition to the position and didn’t put on much mileage in high school. He’s never suffered a significant injury.

“I had nicks and knacks and different things. It’s football. It’s going to happen,” Jeanty said. “But to not miss a single game all season … I think durability also goes with that.”

It’s not something the Raiders worried about.

“He is not a guy that’s going to just run into the wall,” Carroll said. “He’s got everything you could want in a running back.”

Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty runs the ball against Penn State in the Broncos’ Fiesta Bowl loss on Dec. 31. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)

The Raiders wouldn’t have drafted Jeanty so high if they didn’t view him as a complete back, but he still has plenty to work on. The value of the grind was already instilled in him long ago through his nomadic upbringing. Now, it’s just about bringing that same energy to Las Vegas.

Besides learning offensive coordinator Chip Kelly’s system and adjusting to NFL-level competition, Jeanty’s biggest focus early on will be becoming a stronger pass blocker. That’s an often-overlooked role for running backs, but it makes a big difference if a back is a liability.

“That will be an area for him that we’ll emphasize greatly to make sure,” Carroll said. “He’s tough as nails, he’s powerful, he strikes guys the right way. Technique is good. We’ll just try to make him better in all aspects of that, but I think that’s probably the most challenging thing that he’ll have to deal with.”

And while the Raiders won’t run Jeanty as often as he did in his final season at Boise State, they’ll likely want to get him involved in the passing game more frequently. He caught 43 passes for 569 yards and five touchdowns as a sophomore, so he’s capable, but that’s another area where he can continue to refine his game as he becomes a better all-around back.

The effort to make that happen starts with rookie minicamp Friday.

“My hard work,” Jeanty said when asked what gives him confidence about his ability to be great in the NFL. “My mentality is that nobody’s going to outwork me and that nobody can stop me.”

(Top photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)

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