Raiders Rookie Ashton Jeanty Is on a Path to Greatness. Stay out of His Way

The family returned to the States before Jeanty’s sophomore season. Despite racking up stats as wide receiver and running back at Lone Star High School in football hotbed Frisco, Texas, it was Boise State that earned his commitment after he blew away the coaching staff during a recruiting visit. Before he became the Broncos head coach, Spencer Danielson vividly remembers watching Jeanty smiling throughout an exhausting workout. Three years later, Danielson, who was promoted in 2023, marvels at how mesmerizing it was to watch Jeanty break off big plays like it was nothing. “You’d be like, What did we just witness?” says the coach.

“He puts defenders in conflict every time he touches the ball,” says Danielson, “because he gets so low to the ground and he’s so powerful and explosive and has elite balance that a defender doesn’t know how to deal with. Do you go low? He might stiff-arm you and he’s got the breakaway speed to be gone. If you come too high, he’s going to run over you like a freight train.”

By the age of 16, Jeanty knew he had what it took to be an NFL player, even though the big-time universities mostly ignored him during the recruiting process. He played basketball and ran track and field in high school, too, but those sports took a back seat to football when the offers began to arrive.

“Once I got my first offer, I was like, It’s over with,” says Jeanty. “It doesn’t matter where I play at, it could be a D-III school in the middle of nowhere. NFL scouts are going to find me and I’m going to make it to the NFL.”

It’s fitting that Jeanty landed with the Raiders, an organization supported by a group of season ticket holders known as The Black Hole, who dress up in frightening costumes on game day. At Boise State, famous for its blue turf, he became known for his Michael Myers–like stance in the backfield, where he would stand in the stiff, upright posture of the Halloween slasher. As he scanned the defense pre-snap, he’d plot who was going to get carved up on his next carry.