Five feet, 8 inches and 211 pounds of dynamite and dazzle, Ashton Jeanty's onus will be rescuing the Las Vegas Raiders running game from the dregs of the NFL.
In aiming to turn around the league's last-place rushing attack, Jeanty is also seeking to pave the way for a Raiders renaissance.
The prize of the franchise's 2025 draft class, Jeanty and his new teammates might be four months away from their NFL debuts, but the hopeful transformation is underway -- even if it's just in its infant stage.
"It's a new brotherhood. We're all welcoming each other, getting to know each other," Jeanty said Friday, via the Raiders team website’s Levi Edwards. "Pete Carroll was saying it yesterday, we've all got to be connected and build relationships, and that's going to make us a better team and teammates."
Las Vegas is coming off a disastrous 4-13 season in which it finished last in the AFC West and failed to make the playoffs for the third straight season and the seventh time over the last eight years. There was plenty of blame to go around for the Raiders' transgressions. Among them was a 32nd-ranked running game that tallied a measly 1,357 yards -- a total surpassed by five individual NFL running backs in 2025.
Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs wasn't one of them. The former Raiders back had 1,329 rushing yards -- just 28 shy of the team he left in free agency ahead of last season.
Looking to remedy this ghastly ill, the new Silver and Black regime of head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Spytek made Jeanty the franchise's first running back selected in the opening round since Jacobs in 2019. At No. 6 overall, Jeanty was taken higher than any Raiders RB since Darren McFadden (No. 4 overall) back in 2008.
Jeanty has emerged from Boise State having led the nation in rushing in back-to-back seasons, including a 2024 season in which he raised eyebrows and pummeled opponents to the tune of 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns on the ground.
It's delivered him to his first NFL baby steps at Raiders rookie camp, where he's beginning to play out his "lifelong dream."
Via first impression, Jeanty seems to have his eyes and ears open.
"I'm just blessed to be here, I'm happy to continue going through this process and learn," he said. "I'm one day in so I don't have too much of an impression yet, but I'm just going to keep doing everything I can and just try to keep learning as much as I can."
Jeanty is the prized selection of an 11-player Raiders draft class. He'll have plenty on his shoulders when his rookie season dawns, but more of his first-year brethren such as wide receivers Jack Bech and Dont'e Thornton Jr., receiver/returner Tommy Mellott, cornerback Darien Porter, and offensive linemen Charles Grant and Caleb Rogers could be key contributors, as well.
From Jeanty to Spytek to Carroll, the Raiders are hoping positive change is afoot.
Though it's just the spring, they're hoping the building of "a new brotherhood" got underway Friday.
