Courtesy of Boise State
BOISE, Idaho – The Las Vegas Raiders selected Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty with the sixth overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, making the Maxwell Award and Doak Walker Award winner the highest NFL draft pick in program history.
Jeanty was picked by the Raiders after completing one of the most prolific seasons in college football history. He ran for 2,601 yards, second-most in FBS single-season history and 27 yards shy of Barry Sanders’ record from 1988. Jeanty scored 30 total touchdowns and became the only player in FBS history to eclipse 100 rushing yards 14 times in a season. The captain also set College Football Playoff-era records for yards after contact (1,970), missed tackles forced (164) and Pro Football Focus rushing grade (96.6). Behind Jeanty, Boise State won its second-straight Mountain West title, earned the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff, secured a berth in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl and ended the season ranked No. 8 by the Associated Press.
A product of Frisco HS, Jeanty was a consensus All-American and repeated as MW Offensive Player of the Year. He also won the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award and Bobby Bowden Trophy while earning recognition as a finalist for the Walter Camp Award and AAU James E. Sullivan Award. In 2023, he was the nation’s only player with multiple rushing touchdowns of 50+ yards and multiple receiving touchdowns of 50+ yards. Jeanty concluded his time at Boise State as the program’s career record-holder in rushing yards (4,769), yards per carry (6.36), yards per game (119.2), 200-yard rushing games (8), 100-yard rushing games (22), consecutive 100-yard rushing games (14) and 200-yard all-purpose games (11)
Jeanty is the 73rd player all-time to be drafted to the NFL out of Boise State and 44th since 2000, the most in the MW. He is the latest member of an exclusive list of Broncos to go in the first round, which includes Ryan Clady (12th overall in 2008), Shea McClellin (19th in 2012), Leighton Vander Esch (19th in 2018), Kyle Wilson (29th in 2010) and Doug Martin (31st in 2012). Jeanty and Martin are two of eight running backs produced by Boise State, with the others being John Smith (1976), Jon Francis (1986), Brock Forsey (2003), Jay Ajayi (2015), Jeremy McNichols (2017) and Alexander Mattison (2019).
Jeanty is the second-highest pick in Mountain West history behind Alex Smith (Utah), who was selected first overall by the San Francisco 49ers in 2005. He is the highest running back selected since Saquon Barkley (Penn State) was picked second overall by the New York Giants in 2018. He is the highest Group of 5 player drafted since Sauce Gardner (Cincinnati) was picked fourth overall by the New York Jets in 2021.
Jeanty is the third Boise State player to be selected by the Raiders. Linebacker Steve Svitak was selected in the 7th round (180th overall) in 1970 and linebacker Jim Ellis was taken in the 10th round (273rd overall) in 1987.
–BroncoSports.com–