Host Offers Theory on the Raiders Rumored Interest in Ashton Jeanty

The 2025 draft is one of the deepest drafts at running back in years, but the Raiders have still been heavily linked to Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty with the sixth overall pick.

No player has been mock drafted to the Raiders more than Jeanty.

Considering Jeanty’s talent and the presence of Pete Carroll in Las Vegas, no one would be surprised if the Raiders decide to add Jeanty to fill one of the biggest needs on the roster.

But with so many signs pointing to Jeanty, is there a chance the decision makers in Vegas are simply trying to drum up trade interest?

The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen thinks that might be what’s happening and suggested the Bears would be a logical trade partner for the Raiders if Jeanty is available with the sixth pick.

“I think if there’s a team that would come up for Jeanty, it would be the Bears. They’re not too far off [with pick] 10,” Nguyen said on the Just Win podcast. “And I think maybe all this signaling and leaks that they like Jeanty or whatever could be an incentive to try to get the Bears to trade up.”

Another possible reason why everyone seems to think Jeanty will end up in Las Vegas is that it might actually be true.

Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter talked this week about how teams sometimes leak who they want on purpose.

“This happens a lot, [teams] will allow it to be leaked who they really are interested in, because then people think, ’Oh, that’s a smoke screen.’” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast. “I’ve seen that happen. I’ll never forget one time, I had an executive say, ‘Hey, you need to write how much we love this guy.’ I go, ’Why? So you can use me as a smoke screen?’”

“He goes, ‘No, we really do… but there are particular teams that just will assume it’s a smoke screen.’”

For what it’s worth, Raiders GM John Spytek made headlines last week when he shared the story of his son’s affinity for Jeanty.

“My oldest son has made it no secret, if we do not pick Ashton Jeanty at six, that he is walking out of the family and he is gonna find somebody else,” Spytek told SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Probably whoever takes Ashton… Jack is motivated by fantasy football and touchdowns in fantasy football. Not necessarily all of the team building.”

Some took that as a sign Spytek might be leaning toward Jeanty with the no. 6 pick, but The Athletic’s Vic Tafur wrote on Tuesday about another detail that stood out in Spytek’s comments.

“That last part may be revealing — as Spytek and the Raiders are clearly concerned with team building in Year 1 of the team’s third regime in three years or it just may be Spytek dropping some random breadcrumbs for those trying to figure out what the Raiders are going to do,” Tafur said.

A week earlier, Tafur’s colleague at The Athletic, Ted Nguyen, made the same point on their podcast, and referenced another dynamic within the Raiders’ building. 

“What’s interesting about what he said in that podcast, and a lot of people are saying, ‘Oh, it’s a sign that he’s going to draft Jeanty.’ But he actually said his son was making a fantasy football decision, talking about Jeanty, not [being] a team building decision,” Nguyen said on the Just Win podcast. “I think that kind of opens up a little bit about how he’s thinking about it. That Jeanty is a very tempting draft pick and he’s great, but it’s not the wisest team building decision… I think it’s definitely a discussion that they’re having in a building right now.”

To Nguyen’s point, there will be a lot of discussion in the Raiders’ building around what to do with their first-round pick and there’s a chance the building could be a little divided on what to do with less than three weeks to go until the draft.

x: @raidersbeat