Every so often, a special running back prospect comes along and makes evaluators reconsider the evolution of RB draft capital. Could Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty be that RB prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft with his scouting report?
Early on, he has a compelling case.
Ashton Jeanty’s Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 5’8 1/4″
- Weight: 217 pounds
- Position: Running Back
- School: Boise State
- Current Year: Junior
Special runners prove themselves on the field. Jeanty started that process as early as a high school player at Lone Star High in Texas.
In high school, Jeanty — originally from Jacksonville — was too talented to stay off the field. In spite of his size, he played on both sides of the ball at running back, wide receiver, defensive end, linebacker, and safety. But his best work came at RB, where he was a true star.
As a high school senior, Jeanty racked up 1,843 yards and 31 touchdowns on just 229 carries, averaging eight yards per attempt. And through the air, he caught 41 passes for 810 yards and 10 scores.
Despite his Barry Sanders-level production on the HS stage and his four-star recruit billing, Jeanty was under-recruited — presumably because of his size. He received only two Power Five offers and eventually chose to sign with the Boise State Broncos.
Two years later, Jeanty’s decision to head to Boise has paid dividends. Jeanty shared the backfield with George Holani across the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In 2022, he logged 821 rushing yards and seven rushing TDs, and in 2023, he ascended as an all-league force.
As a true sophomore in 2023, Jeanty ran the ball for 1,347 yards and 14 TDs on 220 carries, averaging 6.1 yards per attempt. He also caught 43 receptions for 569 yards and five TDs, reaching almost 2,000 yards from scrimmage.
Jeanty’s production is jaw-dropping, and still, it doesn’t do justice to how good the 20 year old is already.
Jeanty’s Scouting Report
Strengths
- Dense, well-leveraged, hyper-compact runner with excellent mass and balance.
- Fluid, energized mover who can weave through congested lanes while keeping speed.
- Has stellar explosive capacity through gaps and can surge upfield with a crease.
- Has the lateral agility and cutting flexibility to stack tight transitions at a rapid pace.
- Brings a treasure chest of jukes, spins, and stutter moves as a creator in open space.
- Has great vision, both as an initial processor and when identifying cutback opportunities.
- Instinctive backfield operator with fast, efficient feet and quick block processing ability.
- Able to evade early contact threats with alert eyes, cutback awareness, and active feet.
- Has tremendous full-field vision and spatial IQ, and can capitalize with crisp agility.
- Deadly missed-tackle machine who weaponizes his telepathic sense with physical tools.
- Is unnaturally instinctive at recollecting his feet after arm tackle attempts.
- Maximizes compact mass and urgent leg churn with physicality, prying through contact.
- Has truly elite contact balance, derived from low center of gravity, mass, and energy.
- Volume receiver whose fluidity and burst sets the foundation for a full route tree.
- Able to gather passes beyond his frame with diamond technique, then reset for RAC.
Weaknesses
- Initial explosiveness, while great, may be a notch below the quantifiably elite mark.
- Short-strider mold visibly detracts from top-end speed, negating breakaway potential.
- With shorter strides, sometimes lacks the range to reach the boundary on outside runs.
- Doesn’t always trust his speed to reach the boundary, funneling himself inside.
- Occasionally hesitates when given open cutback lanes, drifting into congested areas.
- Is a willing pass protector but is sometimes forced to over-extend due to lacking length.
- Smaller frame is naturally easier to dislodge with opposing power by longer rushers.
- In spite of compact weight, doesn’t quite have the elite mass to bowl over tacklers.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Entering the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, Jeanty grades out as a near blue-chip RB prospect, worthy of early-to-mid first-round capital. Though positional value may drop Jeanty to the late-first or early-second round, he’s a potentially special RB prospect with rare creative ability.
At first glance, Jeanty’s size — 5’8 1/4″ — seems diminutive. But in truth, it’s one of his greatest strengths. At around 5’8″ with a rocked-up 217-pound frame, Jeanty has elite running leverage and compact mass. That, in tandem with his other traits, makes him extremely hard to take down.
Jeanty has the baseline vision, explosiveness, and physicality that all offensive coordinators covet in their ball carriers. But the Boise State RB takes things three steps further with his extraordinary creative framework — a framework that’s assuredly translatable in the NFL.
As a creative threat, Jeanty possesses a devastating elusion fusion that combines crisp agility, lower-body flexibility, post-cut explosiveness, effortless contact balance, and a sixth-sense level of spatial understanding and feel. That fusion makes him almost 1-of-1.
As a natural runner, Jeanty inspires awe. And as a receiving threat, he has immense upside as well. Not only is he a natural catcher, but his skill set is extremely conducive to yards after catch, and he has the fluidity and energy in his motion to supplement a full route tree.
At his size, Jeanty will always have some slight limitations as a pass blocker, but even there, he gives great effort and has enough strength.
Simply put, Jeanty is a complete three-down volume back with the devastating creative ability to give defenses nightmares for years on end.