Insider Explains Why Raiders Decided on Ashton Jeanty with the No. 6 Pick

In the days leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft, there were reports that the Raiders might be leaning away from drafting Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.

Momentum seemed to be building toward Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. in several mock drafts, and there was growing doubt that Jeanty would even be available when the Raiders were on the clock with the sixth pick.

A report on Monday hinted that Jeanty was among a cluster of players the Raiders liked with the no. 6 pick, but with Mason Graham and Will Campbell off the board, the decision wasn’t particularly difficult.

According to Sports Illustrated insider Albert Breer, Banks was in the mix, but Jeanty was too exciting of a prospect to pass on.

Breer said the Raiders view Jeanty as a player that might compare to some of the NFL’s all-time great running backs…

“On the field, that wasn’t hard to see. He rushed for 2,601 yards in 2024, 27 short of Barry Sanders’s 36-year-old single-season college record. The stat that really stood out to the Raiders though was the 1,970 Jeanty compiled after contact, which were more than any other back had total in last season (Cam Skattebo was second in rushing yards with 1,711 and Omarion Hampton was third at 1,660—that, again, is total, not after contact).

That reflected a runner with very, very rare contact balance, which is where comparisons to all-time greats such as LaDainian Tomlinson and Emmitt Smith came into focus. He also brings pass-game value and has a second gear to pull away in the open field, evidenced by the fact that he broke runs of 50-plus yards in nine of the Broncos’ 14 games.“

But it was also Jeanty’s character that impressed the Raiders…

“Off the field, over the past few months, Jeanty kept checking boxes. What the Raiders were looking for really was what Brady exemplified in Spytek’s time with him in Tampa, where the two spent time together every Tuesday working on the next week’s opponent—the humble superstar. Having those sorts of people, obsessed with football and dialed in on the team’s mission, was the one early priority Brady has set for the new football bosses in Vegas. All the background work showed Jeanty had it. Then, Spytek got to see it.

Traveling to Boise State’s pro day on March 26, the GM wanted to see how Jeanty moved through the building. How he treated lower-level people. How teammates reacted to him. What sort of presence he had within the day’s event and the program in general.

As the players warmed up for workouts, Spytek sidled up to Broncos coach Spencer Danielson and, after some small talk, they dove into Jeanty. Danielson told Spytek he was lying awake the night before, trying to think of something, anything, negative he could say about Jeanty’s three years in Idaho—the 36-year-old coach was worried that he was going to come off as so overwhelmingly glowing, to the point where the NFL coaches and scouts on hand would all think he was full of it. But he legitimately had nothing bad to say.

Then, there was the second piece of it. Boise is a bit of a hotbed for West Coast area and regional scouts for NFL to live in. As such, many of them brought their kids out to the pro day. And Spytek took note of how Jeanty interacted with them, and how many of them were wearing his jersey, with his autograph already on it. Spytek mentioned it to a few of the dads/scouts on hand, and their response was, simply, You gotta take this guy.“

x: @raidersbeat

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