-
Ryan McFadden
IN 2018, JIM DAVIS had no choice but to go against his beliefs. As the football coach for Naples Middle/High School, a school for military dependents in Gricignano di Aversa, Campania, Italy, he had never started a freshman on offense.
He had had freshmen on the roster; sometimes five to six that rarely saw the field unless the game was out of hand.
But 14-year-old Ashton Jeanty forced Davis to think differently.
Jeanty had been in Italy since he was 12 because his father, Harry, was a commanding officer on the naval support base in Aversa, a small town near Naples. Even though the school didn’t offer tackle football to middle school students, Davis was enamored by Jeanty’s athletic ability in sports like basketball and track.
He recalled Jeanty beating high school kids in sprints. And one day, Davis watched Jeanty nearly throw down a dunk on the basketball court.
“That took a lot of power for a kid, who was maybe 5-foot-6 [and] 12 or 13 [years old], to explode like that,” Davis, 54, told ESPN. “Most kids don’t even get to do that when they are 18.”
At Naples, the talent varied with kids rotating in and out of the base yearly. Some players had prior knowledge of football, while others were soccer players seeking a new challenge. As a result, Davis never relied on the same offensive scheme.
But when Jeanty, who was born in Jacksonville, Florida, joined the squad, Davis’ game plan was simple: Give him the ball by any means necessary.
During one of the Wildcats’ early practices, Jeanty displayed his power, flattening a senior linebacker. From that moment, Davis knew Jeanty was the real deal.
“I was putting my money on him before the season started… He put that kid right on his butt,” Davis — who has coached at Naples since 2016 –recalled.
Jeanty was a man among boys, said Davis. He traveled across Europe, dominating competition on military bases in Spain, Germany and Belgium. The closest road game was a nine-hour bus ride, and since the field on the naval support base didn’t have lights, Jeanty played home games at the nearby Carney Park military recreational facility, located within an extinct volcano crater.
He put his team on his back weekly. He guided the Wildcats to a 6-0 record while recording 1,223 yards and 21 touchdowns.
Davis would have loved for Jeanty to stay at Naples for the next three seasons. In a sense, he was the team’s security blanket. Whenever the Wildcats needed a winning drive, they knew Jeanty would deliver. But Davis knew Jeanty’s destiny was calling him to return to the United States, where he could test his skill set against stronger competition.
From afar, Davis watched Jeanty turn into a star at Lone Star High School in Frisco, Texas, and later a Heisman Trophy finalist at Boise State. And now with the Las Vegas Raiders, Jeanty is being tasked with a similar assignment that Davis gave him seven years ago in Italy.
When the Raiders drafted Jeanty sixth overall in April, it was evident that he would play a major role in the offense. No running back has been drafted higher since Saquon Barkley was taken second overall in 2018. Raiders coach Pete Carroll, who wants a run-heavy offense, has likened Jeanty to his former player and Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. And during the offseason, Jeanty played the majority of his reps with the first-team offense.
In Year 1, the Raiders want Jeanty to help turn around the league’s worst rushing attack (79.8 yards per game) in 2024. Davis and those who have watched Jeanty’s brilliance up close know that he is ready for the challenge.
“We made a big deal [about this] to him. Everybody’s watching you, and he embraced the thought of it,” Carroll said. “And so, it’s going to be really exciting to see what happens.”
LIVING IN TAMPA, Florida, Christian Albright still can’t wrap his mind around the idea that his former Naples teammate has found his way to the NFL.
At the time, he didn’t know he would share the field with someone who would eventually rack up the second-most rushing yards (2,601) in a season in FBS history, trailing only Barry Sanders in 1988.
Nevertheless, the signs were there.
“He must have been running for 200 to 300 yards a game,” Albright, 23, said. “He was bullying kids.”
Each week, Jeanty was bound to do something spectacular, said Albright. During the Wildcats’ championship game, Albright recalled that Jeanty — who was lined up as an outside linebacker — recorded a pick-six. But his fondest memory of Jeanty didn’t involve him making defenders look silly with his speed and power.
“He threw my first touchdown [reception],” Albright said. “I will always cherish that moment.”
Jeanty started the season at quarterback because Davis just wanted the ball in his hands. The Wildcats incorporated a ton of quarterback-designed run plays to allow Jeanty to beat opponents with his legs.
After three games, Davis decided to scrap that plan and put Jeanty at running back.
The games were relatively high-scoring, and some came down to a touchdown. With Jeanty on the field, the Wildcats knew they would walk away victorious.
“As long as we had the ball, I knew we had the opportunity to score with him in the backfield,” Davis said. “A lot of times [teams] would put nine in the box, but if he hit a seam and you didn’t take him down, he was gone.”
The game was too easy for Jeanty in Italy. So much so that even Davis knew his top player had to face tougher competition and get more exposure.
When Jeanty returned to the United States to attend Lone Star, it took longer than three weeks to show that he could be a menace in the backfield.
1:41
The highlights that make Ashton Jeanty a top NFL draft prospect
Check out highlights from Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty as he becomes the newest Las Vegas Raider.
UNLIKE DAVIS, JEFF Rayburn’s introduction to Jeanty didn’t involve running the rock.
Jeanty was a sophomore when he lined up at safety during a scrimmage ahead of the 2019 season. He ran downhill and annihilated an opposing ball carrier near the sideline, generating oohs and aahs from everyone around him.
“It was one of those hits where everybody stops and gets juiced up,” said Rayburn, who has been the head coach at Lone Star since 2013. “That was our first glimpse of who he was going to be, even though he was a defensive player.”
When Jeanty joined the Rangers, Marvin Mims Jr. was the focus. Mims, a third-year wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, holds the Texas high school state record for receiving yards in a career (5,485) and in a season (2,629 as a senior in 2019).
They also had running back Jaden Nixon, now a redshirt senior at UCF, who rushed for 821 yards and 14 touchdowns that season.
Given the established talent on offense, Jeanty played safety and defensive end during his first season at Lone Star, when the team went 14-1.
As a junior, Jeanty transitioned to slot receiver/running back and made an impact. Jeanty totaled 55 catches for 816 yards and seven touchdowns. He also had 383 yards and a score on 44 carries.
“He’s a natural at everything. There’s not a position on the field he couldn’t play,” Rayburn said of Jeanty, who received all-state honors as a wideout.
Robby Jones, the coach at Aledo High School in Aledo, Texas, called Jeanty a “dynamic wide receiver.” In his team’s victory over Lone Star in 2020, Jeanty managed to collect six catches for 120 yards. Once Jeanty became the Rangers’ lead running back as a senior, he made things even more challenging for Aledo.
The Bearcats took pride in their run defense. Jones said they focused heavily on Jeanty, hoping to prevent him from generating a big play each time he touched the ball. Despite the Bearcats beating Lone Star by 10 points, Jeanty finished with 16 carries for 158 yards and three touchdowns.
“If we had [Jeanty], we would’ve had him in the backfield the entire time,” Jones added. “Our defensive line kept him bottled up at some points in the game, but when you have an exceptional athlete like that, he’s going to get his yards.”
Jeanty filled up the stat sheet. He racked up 2,645 all-purpose yards (1,835 rushing), 41 total touchdowns and ran for 150-plus yards six times.
Amid Lone Star’s 9-3 campaign, College Station High School in College Station, Texas, was the only team to hold Jeanty to under 100 yards. Defensive coordinator Chance Locklear said the key to containing Jeanty, who had 71 yards on 23 carries in the 55-21 loss, was catching him on the edges before he gained steam.
He didn’t want his linebackers to get into one-on-one matchups with Jeanty, so they had a safety play over the top. Even though the Cougars contained Jeanty on the ground, he still managed to record 70 receiving yards.
“We felt good about the defense we had that year,” Locklear said. “But when he turned up the field and went vertical, we didn’t feel like we had the speed to run with him from the linebacker spot.”
Even though Jeanty was difficult to scheme against, coaches admired how he brought out the best in their players. At the same time, they wondered why Jeanty had been overlooked in the recruiting process.
“When we see a guy like [Jeanty], we look at how they are being recruited. Right away, we felt like this guy was way underrecruited,” Jones said.
WHEN COLLEGE COACHES visited Ryan High School in Denton, Texas, head coach Dave Henigan occasionally offered unsolicited advice.
Even though recruiters were there to meet former Denton and current Texas linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. and other players on his roster, Henigan would tell them to go to Lone Star if they were looking for a running back.
“I would say ‘I’ve been a coach for 22 years and the best running back I’ve seen was at Lone Star,'” Henigan said.
Henigan’s message wasn’t received by most. Jeanty was a three-star recruit, and Kansas and California were the only Power 5 schools to extend an offer.
“Nobody listened,” Henigan said. “I mean, Boise State listened. But I don’t know what people were looking at. To be honest, recruiting is a very inexact science.”
Air Force coach Troy Calhoun and defensive coordinator Brian Knorr listened. The Falcons were among the 15 schools to extend a scholarship offer to Jeanty. Knorr was heavily involved in Jeanty’s recruiting process.
Knorr said Air Force pursued Jeanty, intending to make him a slot receiver. He admired Jeanty’s “no quit” attitude and his strong running ability. Knorr had no hard feelings when Jeanty decided to sign with Boise State. Knorr even respected that Jeanty spent his entire college career with the Broncos instead of jumping into the transfer portal.
“It’s funny, the best running back in the country was in the [Mountain West Conference],” Knorr laughed. “He’s so loyal.”
Jeanty’s presence at Boise State came at the cost of Knorr having to face the recruit he once coveted. As a freshman in 2022, Jeanty recorded just 53 rushing yards against Air Force.
The following year, he exploded for 225 total yards and two touchdowns to help Boise State clinch a berth in the Mountain West title game. Knorr said Boise State didn’t try to disguise its game plan. The Falcons knew the ball was going to Jeanty, who had 19 touches in the win.
Knorr said Air Force focused on gangtackling and having multiple eyes on the ball. Still, there was nothing the Falcons could do to slow down Jeanty.
“In the biggest game of our season, [Jeanty] caught a screen and made six guys miss [on a 75-yard touchdown],” Knorr said. “In his last two years, he got so strong that you had to be a great tackler to bring him down as one guy.”
JEANTY’S FINAL SEASON at Boise State was monumental. Sometimes Davis had to get up early in the morning, Italy time, to bear witness to his former player making college football history.
“It was like watching him run around on the field as a freshman in high school,” Davis said. “It was eerily similar.”
Jeanty averaged 185.8 yards per game and collected 29 touchdowns — tied for the seventh-most in a season in FBS history. He rushed for at least 200 yards on six occasions while propelling the Broncos to a 12-2 record and a spot in the College Football Playoff, where they faced Penn State in the quarterfinals.
Former Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Tom Allen coached against plenty of talented running backs during his career. When Allen was watching Jeanty’s game film in preparation for the matchup, he saw shades of former LSU running back Leonard Fournette — the fourth pick in the 2017 NFL draft.
“Fournette would probably be the closest comparison because [Jeanty] is so powerful. That’s where it’s different,” said Allen, now the defensive coordinator at Clemson. “His legs are so big and strong, and he throws people off.”
Allen and his squad were excited to test themselves against Jeanty. The Nittany Lions had a formidable defense in 2024. They were sixth in the Big Ten Conference in rushing yards allowed (101.9 per game) and third in points (16.5).
Jeanty was 131 yards shy of tying Sanders’ single-season rushing record. Penn State, however, didn’t plan on letting him rewrite the record book.
“We have a lot of guys who want to play in the NFL. I said, ‘Well, here you go. You are going against an NFL running back,'” Allen said.
In Penn State’s 31-14 win over Boise State, Allen’s defense accomplished its goal of containing Jeanty, but it wasn’t easy. Indeed, Jeanty didn’t score a rushing touchdown and was held to 3 ½ yards per carry — the lowest since 2023.
The Nittany Lions had a layer of players at the point of attack so that Jeanty wouldn’t break loose for long runs. And yet, he still managed to record 104 yards even though it took 30 attempts to do so.
“To have that kind of objective from your opponent and still be able to get yards shows you [how great he is],” Allen said.
“And that’s why I sought him out after the game. I have so much respect for him. He’s one of the best running backs I’ve ever coached against.”
DURING THE FIRST night of the NFL draft, Davis hoped Jeanty was selected early for selfish reasons. He woke up around 2 am to watch the event, and the quicker Jeanty was selected, the sooner he could go back to bed.
Fortunately, the Raiders granted his wish.
Las Vegas and Jeanty seemed like a perfect match before the franchise made its draft choice. When Carroll was introduced as the head coach, he emphasized the importance of having a strong running game to support the quarterback. Meanwhile, general manager John Spytek liked how the Philadelphia Eagles won a Super Bowl based on an efficient rushing attack led by Barkley.
Due to the Raiders’ emphasis on a strong rushing attack after being near the bottom in every major rushing category, Jeanty will be asked to do some heavy lifting right away.
He walked into the building as the clear-cut starter. And thus far, Las Vegas has treated him as such. Jeanty is expected to be a focal point of the offense along with quarterback Geno Smith, tight end Brock Bowers and wide receiver Jakobi Meyers.
If the Raiders truly want to have a shot at competing for the postseason, Jeanty must live up to the expectations he placed on himself.
There’s confidence within the building that he can.
“All the hype is real, and I’m super excited to block for him,” Raiders center Jackson Powers-Johnson said. “Maybe get some celebrations. He’s a great TikTok dancer, so maybe get my hips loosened up a little bit.”
Said Meyers: “If he could come in and do what I think and hope he can do, I feel like it’s going to be a fun year for us.”
Even though the Raiders were not in pads during OTAs and minicamp, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said Jeanty’s performances against Oregon and Penn State in 2024 provide optimism for the 21-year-old’s potential on offense.
Both games demonstrated to Kelly that Jeanty can play at a high level, regardless of the competition.
“That was a little bit different league for Boise at that time, but not for Ashton in terms of what he did,” Kelly said. “[I’m] excited to see him.”
Just like Jeanty’s freshman year at Naples, he will be asked to play an integral role from the jump. He has shown that he’s up for the challenge.
“From being the top dog here as a freshman year to [not getting] to run the ball again until his senior year, a lot of kids might have quit, but he was determined,” Davis said.
