Las Vegas Raiders rookie running back Ashton Jeanty came into the NFL with a lot of hype. That is no surprise as he finished second in the 2024 Heisman Trophy voting and dominated out of the backfield last season. Jeanty’s talent and production led the Raiders to draft him with the sixth pick in the 2025 NFL Draft despite being from a Group of Five conference with the Boise State Broncos.
The Raiders are hoping that offseason changes to the offense, including drafting Jeanty, lead to significant progression next season. However, not everyone is high on Jeanty’s potential this year, and one NFL analyst is predicting a different running back to win the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award.
NFL Analyst Predicts Omarion Hampton To Win Offensive Rookie of the Year
ESPN’s Ben Solak gave some predictions about the upcoming season and included how he does not believe Jeanty is going to win the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award, instead giving it to Omarion Hampton of the Los Angeles Chargers.
“Omarion Hampton will win Offensive Rookie of the Year,” Solak said. “I think he will quickly out-touch Najee Harris, and I think the Chargers want to go back to a more run-heavy approach after turning pass-heavy out of necessity late last season. He’ll outproduce fellow first-rounder Ashton Jeanty, too. I see a 1,200-rushing-yard season incoming.”
DAWG: #Chargers‘ first-round running back Omarion Hampton is scary looking running at you full speed — Hampton is humongous.
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pic.twitter.com/1SxON03lSm— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) May 12, 2025
Jeanty had a monster season to win his second Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year Award last year. The star had 374 rushing attempts for 2,601 yards (7.0 yards per carry) with 29 rushing touchdowns as well as 23 receptions for 138 yards (6.0 yards per catch) with one receiving touchdown. Las Vegas drafted him, expecting him to bring his explosiveness to the team.
However, Jeanty’s touches might be limited this year due to the offensive shakeup. New quarterback Geno Smith is expected to lead the offense and utilize Brock Bowers, perhaps the best young tight end in the NFL, heavily. Jeanty might not have to carry such a huge workload with the Raiders like he did in college. That could impact his stats.
In Los Angeles, Hampton will share time with fellow running back Najee Harris. However, head coach Jim Harbaugh showed a desire to be a run-heavy offense last year, his first season as coach of the Chargers.
Last year, Hampton showed the ability to dominate with the North Carolina Tar Heels, finishing with 281 carries for 1,660 yards (5.9 yards per attempt) with 15 rushing touchdowns. He also recorded 38 receptions for 373 yards (9.8 yards per catch) with a pair of receiving touchdowns.
The Chargers might have to rely on Hampton more than the Raiders will have to rely on Jeanty. That could likely impact the final numbers, and award voting relies so heavily on the numbers. So, Solak’s prediction has some logic, even if Jeanty might have the higher upside.
With Solak’s prediction in mind, some might look at the betting odds. DraftKings currently has Jeanty as the favorite to win the 2025 Offensive Rookie of the Year award at +250. Hampton is tied with WR/CB Travis Hunter of the Jacksonville Jaguars and QB Tyler Shough of the New Orleans Saints for the third-best odds at +1000.
It will be interesting to see how both running backs are used and how they perform in their rookie seasons.