Bear Digest

Potential top Bears draft pick makes pitch to NFL GMs in open letter

"Draft me because I overcome" was the central theme to Ashton Jeanty's open letter to GMs, and with a need at running back the Bears might need to trade up for this opportunity.
Gene Chamberlain|
Ashton Jeanty tries to convince GMs to draft him early in an open letter published by Theplayerstribune.com.
Ashton Jeanty tries to convince GMs to draft him early in an open letter published by Theplayerstribune.com. | Marco Garcia-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

One of the great mysteries of this draft is whether Ashton Jeanty's career playing at Boise State could have prepared him to not only face the best in the NFL but be among the first drafted.

A potential target of the Bears in the first round if things break right, Jeanty won't be running against San Jose State, UTEP, Utah State or even the Rainbow Warriors of Hawaii now but against the best in the world.

In a letter he reportedly penned for the website Theplayerstribune.com, Jeanty makes a pitch to NFL GMs to draft him and answers the question about how he has been prepared for what he's about to do not just by college football but by what he's had to overcome overall to reach this point.

"If you pick me, it's simple: I'm coming to do what Saquon (Barkley) and the Eagles just did. I'm coming to win, big, soon," Jeanty wrote.

The letter is actually more of an article by Jeanty describing how his life and football career have been nothing but challenges and he as always overcome them, so he sees this next step as nothing different.

One major point of emphasis is how he never really got settled in at running back until his senior year of high school in prep football-driven Texas.

He started playing in middle school and couldn't get many carries as a fifth grader on a team with an eighth-grade back, then eventually when he would have been the eighth-grader ready to shine the military moved his father to Italy. He didn't return until his sophomore year of high school and then at Lone Star High near Dallas in Frisco Texas he couldn't get varsity carries until his senior year. Yet, he persisted by playing linebacker, defensive end, safety, slot receiver and special teams.

One line in his letter described his attitude toward this time and his athletic life.

"You throw me in the deep end with people I’ve never met before? I’m swimming," he wrote.

Jeanty describes this as a time he developed pass-catching skills.

"Junior year, they moved me to slot receiver—and if you’re doubting my pass-catching skills, I’d say go watch that tape," he wrote. "I was dangerous."

Jeanty described the attitude he's been up against his entire career: "It's like, yeah, you did it in Europe. But this is TEXAS. Or it’s, You did it as a freshman, but that was two years ago. I had this moment where I felt these shreds of doubt."

He described running rings at camps around five-star players as a recruit but the five-star guys got the power conference schools.

"So I've had to take the long way sometimes," Jeanty wrote. "And what I’ve learned about 'the long way' is—it didn't keep me from being great. It just made it so when I got there, I’d be even greater."

Jeanty summed up his plea to be drafted early with the theme from his career.

"My journey to the NFL, it’s definitely been different. And I believe that’s exactly what it’s made me. Different," he wrote.

His suggestion to the GMs was: "I’d draft the guy they can’t tackle."

Plenty of voices around the league have suggested the Bears would love the chance to give Jeanty that opportunity to prove himself to skeptics at the highest level. It might not be their call way back at 10th overall, unless they trade up.

Whether Jeanty has to sway to convince the Bears to do this with a letter or through any other means probably won't be known for a week.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.