Full Name: Ashton Jeanty
Position: Running Back
Age: 21 (will turn 22 in Week 14)
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 211 pounds
Hometown: Jacksonville, Florida (Born there, but family moved several times)
Highest Accolades: 2024 Maxwell Award Winner (most outstanding college player), 2024 Doak Walker Award Winner (best college running back)
The Background
Ashton Jeanty was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 2003. His father is Harry Jeanty, a now-retired Naval officer who married Ashton’s mother Pamela while he was attending Columbia University. Ashton proudly carries Haitian heritage on both sides of his family. Harry immigrated to the USA from Haiti when he was young, settling in Florida and attending high school in Deerfield Beach before beginning his career in the Navy. Pamela is a second-generation Haitian American, both of her parents moved to the USA from Haiti before she was born. Ashton is one of three siblings, with an older brother named Amir and two sisters named Alyssa and Ariana. Amir also played football growing up.
Because of Harry’s career in the Navy, the Jeanty family relocated several times during Ashton’s childhood. Harry was stationed in Jacksonville until Ashton was about 7 years old, when the family moved to Chesapeake, Virginia. Harry later got transferred to a Navy base in Georgia, and then soon after he was given a promotion that meant he would be stationed in Italy. In 2018, when Ashton was around 12 years old, the Jeantys moved to a small town near Naples called Gricignano di Aversa. That’s where the story of Ashton Jeanty the football player really begins.
The Journey
Ashton Jeanty attended the Naples Middle/High School when his family was living in Italy. This school was run by the Department of Defense, and was only open to children of military families living in the area. The football team at this school was very small, and played against teams from other American military base schools around Europe. Ashton started out as a quarterback for this team, but switched to running back after two games. Regardless of where he lined up, he was unstoppable. In just six games against other U.S. Military base schools, Jeanty rushed for 1,200 yards and 21 touchdowns. That’s an average of 200 yards and 3.5 touchdowns per game. He led his team to an undefeated 6-0 season, and this success as a freshman was enough to make his family realize that he had the talent to potentially play for a big-time college football program. Despite the obvious talent on display, one big obstacle remained: no college scouts would ever be looking for players at a DoD school in Italy. Later that same year, Harry retired from the Navy and the family moved back to the states.
For his sophomore year, Ashton Jeanty enrolled at Lone Star High School in his new home of Frisco, Texas. This was a powerhouse of a high school football program, with a roster full of players headed for Division I College teams and even some future NFL draft picks including Marvin Mims Jr., Jaylan Ford, and Nick Bolton. Jeanty did not see much playing time on offense that year, but his willingness to play multiple positions on defense allowed him to make his mark on the team anyway. Playing as an outside linebacker, defensive end, and a safety, Jeanty showed that he wasn’t just a talented runner, but a solid all-around football player. After this season, he was given the Texas District 5-5A Division 1 Defensive Newcomer of the Year award.
During his junior year at Lone Star High School, Jeanty was finally able to break through the deep depth chart on the offensive side of the ball. He didn’t quite win the first-string running back job, but was able to split some time running the ball with some time as a slot receiver. He would finish this season with 44 carries for 383 yards and 8 touchdowns while catching 55 passes for 816 yards and 7 touchdowns. The team finished 7-4 and he was once again given all-district honors, this time being named to the All-District First-Team as a receiver.
Finally, as a senior, Jeanty became Lone Star High’s starting running back. In his last 12 games of high school football he rushed 229 times for 1,845 rushing yards and a stunning 31 touchdowns. That’s an average of 154 yards and 2.5 touchdowns per game. He also caught 41 passes for 810 yards and 10 more touchdowns, which brings his all-purpose averages to 221 total yards and 3.4 total touchdowns per game. As if that wasn’t enough to round out his already impressive résumé, Jeanty also returned kicks for the Lone Star Rangers that season. He was able to produce at an extremely high level all season long against a schedule that included some of the best defenses in the state. The team went 9-3. Despite these incredible stats from his senior year, Jeanty did not gather much attention from Power Five college programs. Boise State, however, offered him an early scholarship. That decision would pay off for them, as Jeanty accepted their offer and stayed loyal to them throughout the entire recruiting process even after receiving offers from other, more prestigious schools later in the year.
Jeanty made an immediate impact as a true freshman for the Boise State Broncos in 2022, sharing the backfield with George Holani. Though he only started twice, he appeared in all 14 games, and rushed for 821 yards and seven touchdowns. He also caught 14 passes for 155 yards and posted a strong midseason stretch, including four straight games with a touchdown. He saved his best performance for last, running for 178 yards and a touchdown in the Frisco Bowl to close out the year. The team would finish the season at 9-5 and Jeanty earned an All-Mountain West Honorable Mention.
During his sophomore year, the 2023 season, Jeanty started 10 out of 12 games. He rushed for 1,347 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also proved to be one of the nation’s most dynamic receiving backs, catching 43 passes for 569 yards and five scores. Those 569 receiving yards turned out to be the most receiving yards by any FBS running back that season. His 1,916 total yards and 19 total touchdowns placed him among the most productive players in the NCAA. The Boise State Broncos would finish with a record of 9-5 for the second year in a row. This performance earned him the award for the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year.
By the time his junior year of college arrived, Jeanty was already one of the most feared offensive weapons in the sport. This time around, he started all 14 games. In those games he rushed for 2,601 yards and scored 29 rushing touchdowns. He added 138 receiving yards and another touchdown, finishing the season with 2,739 total offensive yards and 30 total touchdowns. Along the way, he broke multiple NCAA records, including rushing yards after contact in a single season (1,970), missed tackles forced in a single season (164), and 100-yard rushing games in a single season (14). He carried Boise State to a 12-1 record and a berth in the newly expanded College Football Playoff, where the Broncos faced Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal. Though they did not win the game, Jeanty put up 137 all-purpose yards in his final college appearance.
At the end of that 2024 season, Jeanty was named a unanimous First-Team All-American and took home with a whole cabinet full of other awards including:
Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the year
The Maxwell Award for “the most outstanding player in college football”
The Doak Walker Award for “the nation’s top running back”
The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award for “the nation’s top offensive player who also demonstrates integrity, teamwork, sportsmanship, and community involvement with eligibility for players from Texas or who played high school football in Texas”
Ashton Jeanty was also the runner-up for the 2024 Heisman Trophy, beating out every other player in the NCAA except for Travis Hunter. Jeanty got a total of 2,017 votes, while Hunter got 2,231 votes. Jeanty still managed to get nearly 4 times as many votes as the third place athlete, Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel who finished with 516 votes. Following this season, he declared for the NFL draft.
The Future
As the sixth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, it is clear that the Las Vegas Raiders plan to build around Ashton Jeanty and see him as a key component to the success of their franchise going forward. The Raiders had the fewest rushing yards of any team in the NFL last year with 1,357, and their 10 rushing touchdowns ranked 28th in the league, so help on that side of their game was desperately needed. While history tells us that one good running back is usually not enough to solve the offensive woes of a struggling team, the Raiders seem committed to an almost complete tear-down and rebuild of their offense from last year under new head coach Pete Carroll. First they brought in free agent quarterback Geno Smith, who is coming off a strong career resurgence in Seattle over the last few years. They also signed Alex Cappa and Raheem Mostert. Then, after drafting Jeanty, they spent their second round pick on TCU receiver Jack Bech and two third round picks on offensive line reinforcements in the form of Caleb Rogers from Texas Tech and Charles Grant from William & Mary. Their fourth round pick was spent on another receiver, Dont’e Thornton Jr. from Tennessee. These new faces will join standout tight end Brock Bowers as he enters his second season, and the steady veteran Jakobi Meyers in an effort to improve upon last year’s disappointing 4-13 season.
We here at Precipice Sports think that Jeanty has all the tools needed to be an excellent ball carrier at the NFL level, but those skills will only translate to a successful career as a Raider if the rest of the offense can show up to support him. If they can’t, we might be looking at another Saquon Barkley situation.
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