NFL Draft experts react to Las Vegas Raiders selecting Ashton Jeanty

Raiders take Boise State back No. 6 overall

Ashton Jeanty. | Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Las Vegas Raiders selected Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty with the sixth overall pick during Thursday’s first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. 

“There goes a spectacular all-around running back,” ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said as Ashton Jeanty approached NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on stage. “He can be that workhorse running back for Geno Smith and that Raiders offense.”

The 5-foot-8, 211-pound Jeanty ran for 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns on 374 carries last season, leading the nation in all three categories. He recorded 1,970 yards after contact while forcing 164 missed tackles.

Here is what ESPN’s Louis Riddick, Booger McFarland and Kiper Jr. said about the Raiders’ new running back. 

Louis Riddick

“I had the privilege of seeing this young man up close and personal at the Fiesta Bowl this year. I said, preparing for that game, that this is Emmitt Smith with home run, breakaway speed. The vision and the elusiveness … he’s built like a bodybuilder, like a powerlifter, but he’s got the jump-cut ability to get the ball out on the perimeter. Then he’s got the lower body power as he’s weaving his way through traffic with that next-level vision. He’s going to rip off 20, 30, 40-yard runs on the regular. 

“Emmitt Smith, he did this on the regular at the NFL level. What was Emmitt’s superpower? It was the vision and the lower body balance, the ability to see things that other people simply couldn’t see. And he didn’t have the kind of breakaway speed that Ashton Jeanty has. When you talk about contact balance and burst and the ability to get yardage after the initial contact, nobody does it better than this guy. Nobody.”

Booger McFarland

“There’s a few things as a running back that you have to have in the National Football League. Can you make a guy miss in the hole? Can you do that? From a contact balance standpoint, if you get hit, can you absorb the first hit and then continue on? He can do that. And the third thing, can you take it to the house? He does all three of those things well. That’s why he’ll be successful as an NFL running back.”

Mel Kiper Jr. 

“He gets by those blockers, players can’t even locate him, and then he’s gone. With the contact balance and the game-breaking speed … hey, I’m against running backs in the first round, but in terms of ability, he’s the fourth-best player in the draft. Pete Carroll wants to run the ball and take some of that pressure off of Geno Smith.”