Meet The Press: Raiders Top Pick Jeanty Travels From Green Bay To Silver & Black Headquarters For Polite, Pleasant Intro To Las Vegas; Raiders Pick Wide Receiver Jack Bech With 58th Selection
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Like many Las Vegas visitors, the first round draft pick of the Las Vegas Raiders did not get much sleep overnight.
But the Raiders are counting on hard-running Ashton Jeanty on sticking around Las Vegas a lot longer than dice-rolling, gambling machine-working tourists.
Jeanty is one 21-year-old young man with a clear vision of his career aspirations.
Carry the football for the Raiders — and make this once-colorful franchise relevant again in the NFL postseason. After losing the 2002 NFL season Super Bowl, this former dominant team has appeared in the playoffs twice in 22 seasons, losing both of those wild card teams.
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The son of a U.S. Navy chief petty officer, Jeanty began answering questions from the Las Vegas media at about 1:25 PM for about 12 minutes at Raiders HQ in Henderson Friday. His answers were polite and pleasant, spiced with a smile or laugh.
Jeanty’s answers lasted as long as the questions. You’ll see what I mean here:
Jeanty is a powerfully-built man, weighing in at 211 points and standing at five feet, eight and a half inches tall. His comments are to the point: “I’ve got so many different ways to describe how I run, but I think my favorite somebody said that I was a rolling ball of knives.”
Raiders coach Pete Carroll had this to say about Jeanty: “I think the word is dynamic for us. He has the ability to do all of it. He can run with power. He can run in short yardage areas and find the spacing that he needs to make the plays, and he’s got that marvelous ability, just on any play, he can score . . . ”
Fans at the Raiders Draft party welcomed the Raiders’ selection of Jeanty as the number six overall pick. That included Raiders team president Sandra Morgan and the “Violator” superfan.
Here’s what Raiders coach Pete Carroll said of Jeanty: “. . . he was hard to tackle. I mean,
guys couldn’t get him on the ground. And I compared him with a lot of players in the past, that skill to
make people miss and to bounce off tackles and to use the force of the tacklers.
“And he had marvelous talent in that regard, and that he reminded me – and I’m not going to share them with you, because I don’t want to compare – but with a number of players that we’ve watched over the years, and going back quite a ways. I thought he was that unique.”
Raiders General Manager John Spytek said Jeanty meets the draft criteria of team need and best player available: “It’s one of those deals where it meets the need and the best player meet together, and you
kind of feel like that’s a perfect storm at that point too, and it’s just too much to ignore at that point. He’s
the perfect player for us this year . . . ”
Day 2 Draft News: The Raiders acquired the 48th, 98th and 135th picks from the Miami Dolphins in exchange for the 37th pick and the 143rd pick.
And with that 48th pick, the Raiders acquired the 58th and 99th picks in the 2025 NFL Draft from the Houston Texans in exchange for the 48th. The Raiders now have six picks in the top 108.
After trading down, the Raiders used the 58th pick to select tough TCU wide receiver Jack Bech, a 22-year-old Lafayette, LA native. The six-foot, two-incher at 215 pounds is known for catching passes over the middle and breaking tackles. He caught 62 passes for 1,067 yards and nine TDs.
Bech’s late brother, Tiger, was killed in the truck attack in New Orleans Jan. 1 and Jack honors Tiger.
The Raiders also picked Iowa State cornerback Darien Porter with the 68th pick, Texas Tech offensive lineman Caleb Rogers with the 98th pick and William & Mary offensive tackle Charles Grant with the 99th pick.
“These guys are great competitors,” Carroll said.
Here’s Carroll and Spytek after the picks were made Friday night.
PROMO
