Ashton Jeanty 2025 Prospect Profile

Quick Stats:

• 5’8 ½”, 211 lbs, did not run the 40-yard dash at the combine. 
• 2024: 2601 rush yards (2nd most all time)
• Drafted 6th overall by the Raiders (HC: Pete Carroll, OC: Chip Kelly)

There was a time where running backs ruled the NFL. I know for my younger readers, that seems impossible given how they have been unfairly ostracized by front offices across the league.

Success Rate by Concept

Concept Percentage

Notable Stats

So when I say Ashton Jeanty is a throwback, I’m not referring to five or even 10 years ago, this is the kind of player we saw in the early 2000’s. A running back with optimal size and a wide and varied skill set to go along with reliable hands.

When watching Jeanty, his bounce jumps off the screen. He does a tremendous job pressing the hole, getting defenders to commit and then using his short-area burst to get to the outside. His 79.0% success rate on outside runs was tops in the charted class.

And once he got to the outside, he was an absolute nightmare to bring down. His 33.2% broken tackle rate was second best in the class. Once defenders did get a hold of Jeanty, his power routinely carried tacklers forward. So yeah his combination of strength and elusiveness… that’s rare.

What separates good from great backs is vision. The backs with great vision are almost like Dr. Strange with a third eye… they aren’t only seeing which holes are open in that moment, they have a real feel for holes that are developing and charging towards those spaces with quickness and power.

In that regard I was probably most impressed with Jeanty’s vision. He consistently hit the correct hole whether in man/gap or zone concepts. And just the designed holes but when defenders were crashing down too hard into his designed gap, Jeanty would effortlessly flow into a hole that was vacated.

I think a player like this is scheme proof and will thrive anywhere but it’s fair to note that we haven’t seen him in a high-volume zone scheme. Although that could be said of nearly every back coming out of college (minus all these Iowa boys!) as shotgun-spread offenses are dang near universal at this point.

When teams go shotgun or pistol, the de facto scheme for their backs is going to be something man/gap related. It was no different for Jeanty who ran in man/gap concepts on 72% of his runs. His success rates on M/G runs was 60.3%, good for 4th best among the charted class.

His zone scores was slightly below as he ranked 6th out of 12 charted backs but his offensive line was flat out ineffective on zone runs, making it extremely difficult for Jeanty to wiggle free. The Boise OL got flat out dominated by Penn State.

I truly believe that even league average OL play will result in chunk gains if Pete Carroll and company want to run zone. (Spoiler alert: they probably won’t.)

In terms of pass catching, Jeanty was not consistently used in the pass game but caught everything thrown his way.

He was used in limited capacity in the slot or out wide as a pass catcher but his route running was average at best. Didn’t see the same explosiveness in route running as I did in his running. But I did come away thinking, “This guy’s got SOLID hands.”

I want to expand on his 17.9% explosive rate as well. If you look at the class, Jeanty checks in slightly below the 18.5% class average. That being said, there are a few nuances I wanted to clear up.

Defenses were clearly obsessed with tracking and stopping Jeanty and his offensive line was fine but it’s not like he was running behind a comparatively great OL.

My explosive run stat itself needs some clarification. Anytime a back makes a play of 10+ scrimmage yards whether it’s on the ground or through the air, I track it as an explosive play. So a 10-yard run is marked the same as a 80-yard run.

And let me tell you, I’m not sure there was a player that had more 50-yard runs than Jeanty. So while his explosive rate was only okay, his real-life impact as an explosive player was insane.

Let’s talk potential scheme fit. In 2023, Pete Carroll’s offense was primarily an inside zone team, ranking 7th in zone% while also being 11th in inside rush rate.

That being said, Chip Kelly is coming from a collegiate system where he ran an overwhelmingly man/gap system. A whopping 85 percent of Quinshon Judkins’ runs were man/gap concepts. Similar numbers can be found for TreVeyon Henderson.

These Kelly Buckeye offenses ran backs outside the box on about a third of their touches, I know that doesn’t sound like a ton but it’s above the prospect average. And most college offenses because of spread concepts rarely run the ball outside. Conversely, literally every NFL team ran the ball outside more than 35% of the time.

Jeanty was no different, he really didn’t run a ton of outside concepts at Boise, mostly because his OL couldn’t handle it, but when he did get outside, as mentioned, he was awesome.

Jeanty is now playing for a head coach that loves to run the rock and with an offense coordinator that has a proven track record for producing big-time backs.

With his skills and the coaching in place, player match score: 10 out of 10.