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The Las Vegas Raiders made several huge improvements during the 2025 NFL offseason. Las Vegas added head coach Pete Carroll, added plenty of depth during free agency, and drafted Ashton Jeanty during the 2025 NFL Draft. Jeanty may be the most important addition of the offseason.
Raiders GM John Spytek explained in a recent interview why his team decided to draft Ashton Jeanty.
“I always think of running backs like Bucky Irving last year — the first man can’t tackle me. Bucky proved that,” Sptek said. “And Ashton has great feet, great vision, and he’s a nightmare to tackle in the open field for linebackers and DBs. And when you come up, what was it, 31 yards short of Barry Sanders? You’ve got my attention.”
Jeanty was in fact just 27 yards shy of breaking Barry Sanders' single-season collegiate rushing record. The game has changed a lot since Sanders was playing college football, with the pass game becoming the standard. This makes it even more impressive that Jeanty came so close to breaking Sanders' record.
“I think he just made sense for us,” Spytek added. “Because he's a great person, he's productive. He does all the things you want a running back to do.”
Jeanty seems like the perfect player to help establish what Spytek and Carroll want to accomplish with the Raiders.
“We want to be a physical and violent football team,” Spytek concluded. “We want to [be a team] that dominates the line of scrimmage. I've got a lot of belief, back to my Michigan days, [that] it starts with the run game.”
Hopefully Jeanty can command enough attention to open up the passing game for newcomer Geno Smith and Brock Bowers.
Ashton Jeanty sends “brotherhood” message during Raiders rookie minicamp
It looks like Jeanty is already fitting in with Las Vegas.
Jeanty had a great time at the Raiders rookie minicamp. He made a bold statement about the chemistry he is building with his new team.
“It's a new brotherhood. We're all welcoming each other, getting to know each other,” Jeanty said via the Raiders team website’s Levi Edwards. “Pete Carroll was saying it yesterday, we've all got to be connected and build relationships, and that's going to make us a better team and teammates.”
Jeanty projects to be the tone setter for the Raiders on offense in 2025. Las Vegas will want to get him up to speed as soon as possible.
If Jeanty becomes the player Las Vegas hopes he is, he will have a great chance to win Offensive Rookie of the Year.
