Eric Williams
NFL Reporter
A staple of Pete Carroll offenses over the years — from his time with the Seattle Seahawks and USC — has been running the football. Reggie Bush and LenDale White led the charge as the Trojans won back-to-back national championships, and Marshawn Lynch helped Seattle reach back-to-back Super Bowls.
So the selection of Boise State product Ashton Jeanty makes sense as Carroll attempts to quickly turn the Raiders into a playoff contender.
“You see it — the energy and the dance moves,” joked Jeanty in an interview on stage after his selection by Las Vegas with the No. 6 overall pick. “I’m ready to go entertain each and every week on Sunday.”
Carroll had already secured a quarterback he’s very familiar with in Geno Smith via trade with his former team in Seattle, giving the Raiders a signal-caller with playoff experience. In Jeanty, Carroll now has one of the most explosive playmakers leading his backfield in the NFL.
Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry spurred a resurgence of the running back last season with the way they led their respective teams. And giving new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly an explosive chess piece also takes pressure off Smith to carry the offense. According to Next Gen Stats, over the past three seasons, Smith completed 73% of his passes for 3,070 yards, with 16 touchdowns and six interceptions for a 107.3 passer rating on play-action passes.
Having a dynamic runner like Jeanty leading the Las Vegas offense will allow Smith to be effective at creating chunk plays down the field with defenses focused on stopping the running game. The top rusher in college football last season and the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, Jeanty can single-handedly upgrade the Raiders’ running game. He finished with 63 runs of 10-plus yards at Boise State.
Las Vegas finished last in the league in rushing last season, averaging a woeful 80 rushing yards per contest. During Carroll’s 14-year tenure in Seattle, the Seahawks finished in the top 10 in rushing yards six times.
“You have to be able to run the football so that you can control your aspect of the game and take care of the ball so that the quarterback isn’t under duress,” Carroll said at the NFL Scouting Combine.
“And we try to build a team around the quarterback position because, as Coach [Bill] Walsh said a long time ago, it’s the hardest position in professional sports to play. We need to do everything we can to facilitate and make it as easy as possible for that guy. So that’s where the running game is so fundamental to it.”
With that in mind, it’s really no surprise why Ashton Jeanty is a Raider.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on X at @eric_d_williams.
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