The Las Vegas Raiders defeated the New York Jets 38-33 on Sunday, but last year’s 6th overall pick played little role. Ashton Jeanty dominated in college, but he hasn’t translated that success to the NFL so far. If you watched him play without knowing his story, you likely wouldn’t think he was drafted as high as he was.
Las Vegas had good reason to take him with such a high pick. Jeanty became Boise State’s primary starter in 2023 and rushed 220 times for 1,347 yards and 14 touchdowns; he also added 43 receptions for 569 yards and 5 touchdowns. Very solid stats, but 2024 is when he really climbed up the draft boards.
That season, Jeanty played in 14 games, rushing 374 times for 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns, while catching 23 receptions for 138 yards and 1 score. He led the nation in rushing yards, falling just 27 yards short of Barry Sanders’ single-season record. He took home the Maxwell Award, the Doak Walker Award, and the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award; he was a unanimous All-American and the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year. He was second in Heisman voting behind Travis Hunter.
In the 2024 draft, it was clear he would be the first running back off the board, despite some concerns about his size. Jeanty is listed at 5 ft 8 in and 208 lbs. Still, the Raiders selected him in the top ten, and he was immediately tapped as the starting running back.
His rookie season was just okay; he carried the ball 266 times for 975 yards and 5 touchdowns. That averaged just 3.7 yards per carry. He did produce in the receiving game, catching 55 receptions for 346 yards and 5 more touchdowns. Decent production but not what you want to see out of your top-ten draft pick.
He started the season strong with a 23-carry, 102-yard game against the Miami Dolphins, where he also had 6 receptions for 45 yards and 2 touchdowns. He seemed ready to prove he could be a number-one option. However, he has not rushed for more than 58 yards in any of the seven games since the season opener. His carries have also steadily declined during that time.
This came to a head over the past two weeks as he had just 8 carries for 15 yards in a loss to the Los Angeles Rams and 2 carries for 9 yards yesterday. Instead, most carries have gone to Mike Washington Jr. Yesterday, he had 25 carries for 83 yards.
Head coach Klint Kubiak was asked about the decision to favor Washington over Jeanty after yesterday’s loss.
“That’s my call, and Ashton’s still going to be a big part of our team. He had a huge catch. Huge catch. He’s going to be a huge part of our run game going forward. We just wanted to give Mike a few more opportunities today. And I think both of those guys are going to be a huge part of our rushing and passing success moving forward.”
It will be interesting to see if Jeanty gets more opportunities going forward, but for now it looks like it is Washington’s job to lose.
