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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The Las Vegas Raiders did more than pick a first round draft pick Thursday.
The NFL team took a tangible step under the new Pete Carroll regime to try and create both a winning team and a squad with a specific identity with the Raiders’ selection of running back Ashton Jeanty from Boise State with the sixth pick in the NFL Draft. Jeanty knows Allegiant Stadium from his college playing days against UNLV.
His numbers were staggering. Jeanty led college football with 2,601 rush yards and was the Heisman runner-up in 2024. His Boise State team defeated UNLV twice, once at Allegiant Stadium and then again Dec. 6 to win the Mountain West championship and a bid to college football championship playoffs.
Jeanty told the Las Vegas media: “I mean first of all, I’ve got to shout out Mark Davis, the owner, [John] Spytek the GM, Coach Pete Carroll, Running Backs Coach [Deland] McCullough. But my impression of it has been great, it’s a great city. There’s a lot of history in the Raiders building, a lot of amazing players that went through there, a lot of winning and championships. So, I’m excited to go over there and be a part of that.”
Raiders owner Mark Davis has watched his iconic franchise appreciate wildly in value since moving to Las Vegas in 2020 thanks to a subsidized stadium, but the team has racked up 36 wins in the five seasons in Vegas while losing 48 games.
Now Carroll will have a player to build an offense around, mimicking his Beast Mode days of using Marshawn Lynch as a ground-and-pound runner in Seattle during many winning seasons.
Jeanty on Lynch: “I mean even growing up, Marshawn [Lynch] was one of the first backs I started watching and looking up to. So, definitely just breaking tackles and making crazy plays down the field. There’s a lot of similarities there.”
More than anything, not only wins have been elusive in Las Vegas where many of the Raiders home games resemble tourist events for opposing teams’ fans, stability at the coaching post has been missing.
With Davis’ appointment of Carroll, the Raiders now have had five coaches in five years here in Las Vegas: Jon Gruden, interim Rich Bisaccia in 2021, Josh McDaniels in 2022-23, interim Antonio Pierce in 2023, Pierce in 2024 and now Carroll in 2025.
With the pick of Jeanty, the Raiders now have a main building bock to improve a lame running game that produced the fewest rushing yards in the 32-team league in 2024.