NFL analyst urges Chicago Bears to take a pass on Ashton Jeanty

Nobody will argue that Ashton Jeanty is a straight-up, unmitigated beast.

Last year at Boise State, the diminutive running back was a menace, racking up 2,601 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns. (FWIW, the 2024 Chicago Bears as a team managed 33 touchdowns. Do with that information what you will.)

Little wonder Jeanty is ranked near the top of virtually every NFL Draft big board:

The 33rd Team: #3

ESPN: #5

NFL.com: #3

PFF: #5

The Ringer: #3

The Athletic’s Dane Brugler agrees, slotting Jeanty at the five-spot back in February. But two months later, one of his colleagues disagrees.

Like, really disagrees.

Pain In the Ashton

On April 10, in a piece entitled , “Picking Ashton Jeanty in the top 10 would be a mistake, learning wrong lesson from Saquon Barkley,” The Athletic’s Austin Mock advised a NFL franchises with a high draft position to avoid a player who some feel could be a generational talent.

Mock has three primary issues with using a top-ten selection on the 5’9” speedster: Future money, team fit, and impact on winning.

The money situation isn’t a thing right now—remember, rookie contract—but Mock believes that it could be a problem down the line, explaining, “Let’s assume for a moment Jeanty plays well enough to warrant a second contract. As the No. 10 pick, he’d make about $6.6 million per year over the four years of his contract. Right now, the top 10 running backs in the NFL make an average of $12.5 million per year, which means if Jeanty is a top-10 back, a team would only be saving about $6 million per year on his rookie deal.”

He then questions whether any team poised to grab Jeanty would make for a logical landing spot, among them, the Midway Monsters: “The Las Vegas Raiders, New Orleans Saints, and Chicago Bears seem to be the most likely teams to select Jeanty with a top-10 pick. Those teams posted yard-before-contact averages of 1.1, 1.5 and 1.5. Are we sure Jeanty is going to be worth the investment if he isn’t being set up to succeed like the best running backs in the league?”

Mock also isn’t convinced that Jeanty—or, for that matter, any highly-drafted running back—can drag a team to the Promised Land, saying, “There have been 27 playoff wins among the first-round running backs on their rookie contracts, and 16 of those 27 wins came with future Hall of Fame quarterbacks under center (Drew Brees, Brady, Mahomes). Also notably, all three backs were selected with the 28th pick or later.”

He Has a Point

The knee-jerk reaction to Mock’s take might be something along the line of, “Dude, Jeanty rocks.”

And Jeanty does, indeed, rock, but does it matter?

Maybe. Let's look at the leading regular season rusher for each of the last 10 Super Bowl winners:

2024 Philadelphia Eagles:: Saquon Barkley, 2,005 yards

2023 Kansas City Chiefs: Isiah Pacheco, 935 yards

2022 Kansas City Chiefs: Isiah Pacheco, 830 yards

2021 Los Angeles Rams: Sony Michel, 845 yards

2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Ronald Jones, 978 yards

2019 Kansas City Chiefs: Damien Williams, 498 yards

2018 New England Patriots: Sony Michel, 931 yards

2017 Philadelphia Eagles: LeGarrette Blount, 766 yards

2016 New England Patriots: LeGarrette Blount, 1,161 yards

2015 Denver Broncos: Ronnie Hillman, 863 yards

Additionally, only eight Hall of Fame running backs can boast a Super Bowl ring, those being Larry Csonka, Franco Harris, Tony Dorsett, Marcus Allen, Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith, Marshall Faulk, and Terrell Davis.

So whether or not you agree with Mock, one thing is for certain: You can win a Super Bowl without a stud running back.

And every team picking in the top-10 of the 2025 NFL Draft needs to keep that in mind.