Ashton Jeanty doesn’t have to worry like a lot of NFL Draft prospects heading into next week.
While many will be wondering if they will be taken, Jeanty is a sure bet to be taken in the first round. It’s just a matter of when.
Jeanty, a Heisman Trophy finalist last season at Boise State, is the consensus top running back prospect in this year’s draft class, and many believe he’s not falling out of the top 10 next Thursday in Green Bay.
In case Jeanty’s college-leading 2,601 rushing yards and 29 rushing touchdowns weren’t enough to prove his worth, he wrote the perfect ending to his letter to NFL general managers in The Players’ Tribune.
“I’d draft the guy they can’t tackle,” Jeanty wrote in his article, “A Letter to NFL GMs.”
Jeanty is expected to be a difference maker the second he gets to the league, especially with his ability to make tacklers miss in the open field.
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And Jeanty clearly wants to be that difference maker after watching February’s Super Bowl in New Orleans between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs.
He wants to be what Saquon Barkley was for the Eagles last season.
“Most people, they watched the Eagles win the Super Bowl a couple of months ago. They watched Saquon run through everyone in the playoffs, and they thought to themselves, ‘This is amazing,’” Jeanty began his letter to GMs.
“I watched it and I thought something different. I thought, ‘That can be me.’”
Jeanty explained his confidence starts with his family, with his father serving in the military and moving around with his brother and two sisters throughout his career. He noted the first time he was introduced to the game of football was in the backyard instead of an organized game.
But he quickly realized, “No one could touch me.”
“You’d have these older kids out there, all trying to bring me down, doing whatever they could. And I’d just be making them look silly,” Jeanty added.
Jeanty’s love for the game grew, especially when he joined his first organized rec league in fifth grade with his best friend, Mario. So, what differentiates Jeanty?
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He said it was when his dad was stationed in Naples, Italy, when football wasn’t available in middle school for the young Jeanty. That’s the difference, and one of the main reasons why he believes NFL GMs should consider taking him.
“I actually think that time in my life where I couldn’t play football is a part of it,” Jeanty explained. “A lot of people, they might flourish when things are going according to plan. But then, if they get thrown a curveball, they can’t adapt. Me, I feel like I’m the opposite. When I had to move across the world and pause football for a year, my attitude was, ‘Well, alright — I can’t control that. So let’s take what I can control, and make the absolute best out of it.’”
Jeanty eventually moved to Frisco, Texas. He was a star in the making throughout his three years in Texas, and he quickly realized that playing running back was instinctual for him, something that translated to the college level and likely to the pros.
“Once I’m running that football, I swear: my instincts just take over. This special gear kicks in, and it’s like I’m 10 years old again and I’m making the older kids look silly. I turn into this unstoppable beast,” he said.
What team is expected to take this self-proclaimed “unstoppable beast?”
The Las Vegas Raiders pick at No. 6, and a number of mock drafts have them taking Jeanty. They could use an elite running back with Geno Smith aboard as the team’s new signal-caller under Pete Carroll, who returns to the sideline as head coach in Sin City.
Either way, Jeanty’s confidence is through the roof. He wants to do exactly what Barkley did for the Eagles last season by setting the tone on offense and becoming a human highlight reel, which he was in college.
“I’ve taken the long way. I’m done with that way,” he wrote. “If you pick me, it’s simple: I’m coming to your franchise to do what Saquon and the Eagles just did. I’m coming to win, big, soon.”
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