Bear Digest

Chicago Bears face tricky conundrum with Ashton Jeanty in 2025 NFL Draft

If Boise State RB Jeanty falls to the Chicago Bears at No. 10 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, it could be a red flag that Ryan Poles should avoid.

Lorin Cox

Boise State Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty speaks to the media at Arizona Ballroom at Camelback Inn on Dec. 29, 2024, ahead of their Vrbo Fiesta Bowl matchup against the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Boise State Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty speaks to the media at Arizona Ballroom at Camelback Inn on Dec. 29, 2024, ahead of their Vrbo Fiesta Bowl matchup against the Penn State Nittany Lions. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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The legendary comedian Groucho Marx famously said "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member."

The Chicago Bears are facing a similar dynamic with Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty in the NFL Draft.

Plenty of Bears fans want to see the team take the draft's top running back when Chicago is on the clock with the 10th overall pick.

But if teams truly view Jeanty as the next Emmitt Smith, then he's not going to last until the 10th pick.

In the last decade of drafts, the running backs viewed as "can't-miss" prospect all came off the board earlier that that.

Most recently, the Atlanta Falcons drafted Bijan Robinson eighth overall in 2023. Jahmyr Gibbs went 12th overall to the Detroit Lions that year, but he wasn't viewed in the same category as Jeanty.

Before that, the last "generational" running back prospect was Saquon Barkley in 2018, who the New York Giants took at number two.

Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey were drafted fourth and eighth, respectively, in 2017, and Ezekiel Elliott went fourth in 2016.

These kinds of running backs don't make it out of the top eight, even in the modern era where the position has been devalued.

So if Jeanty does somehow fall to the 10th pick, it will be a sign that NFL teams don't actually view him in the same category as the elite prospects of previous drafts.

Multiple teams picking before the Bears could use a running back upgrade. If the New York Giants, New England Patriots, Las Vegas Raiders and New Orleans Saints all pass on Jeanty, despite their needs in the backfield, shouldn't Ryan Poles do the same thing for Chicago?

It's a red flag if Jeanty makes it to the 10th pick in a draft class that doesn't have 10 blue-chip prospects in it.

In all likelihood, the Bears won't have a chance to decide on the Boise State running back at 10 because he won't make it to 10. But if he does make it to 10, Chicago should pass.

It's like Groucho Marx said, I don't want any running back that would fall all the way to me in the NFL Draft.

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Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the host of the Locked on Bears podcast and has been covering the Chicago Bears since 2016. He is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus and has written for NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today's Bears Wire. You can follow him on Twitter @CoxSports1.

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