The Las Vegas Raiders have been plagued by many issues during the 2025 NFL season, but the rushing attack has been slowly coming along. While the running game was a problem in the first three contests, it has been much better over the past two weeks.
Obviously, the improvement has largely been tied to the breakout of rookie running back Ashton Jeanty. While the rookie appeared to quiet the noise about where he was drafted, former NFL quarterback and current analyst Chris Simms is not sold on the Raiders' running back.
Simms criticized Jeanty at length after one week of his NFL career, and he's known to have a heavy anti-Raiders bias. It should come as no surprise, then, that he continues to diss the young player despite his turning things around.
Former NFL player not a believer in Raiders RB Ashton Jeanty
Jeanty has been one of the few bright spots on a Raiders team that appears to be one of the worst in the league. Despite his uptick in production, Simms remains unimpressed with the sixth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
"His ability to see a hole or seam and just explode through it and split defenders, that's not elite. That's the thing that I think is why I'm not wowed by him all the way. He's got the good contact talent, but the explosiveness to pull away from the contact after at times, ... for me is not up with the top guys, ... I don't think he's popped to our eyes that way, at least not to me yet," Simms said. "You couple that with the size where you just go wait, a lot of these tackles he broke in college and this is where it's different in the NFL because, yeah, okay, you played against a lot of linebackers in college football or people at the second level that are not NFL football players. And you're seeing now, when those guys hit you, yeah, we don't get the same amount of guys falling off him and people bouncing off him and him bouncing off them the same way. It's like, yeah, you lowered a blow, sure, but you went down -- the guy brought you down. And, I think, in the old days in college, we would've gone. oh no, he delivered a blow to that guy, that guy looks silly and now he's running up the sidelines and he's about to make somebody else look silly. And that doesn't happen nearly as much right now."
Simms also went on to diss Jeanty by claiming that teammate Raheem Mostert is also more explosive than him. The former quarterback, who is notoriously hard on the Raiders, suggested that Omarion Hampton and Quinshon Judkins are both better than Las Vegas' young star.
RELATED: Raiders crack a smile as Chargers trade away Geno Smith's kryptonite
Jeanty, who leads all rookies in rushing yards, has 205 rushing yards over his past two games, adding 59 receiving yards and three total touchdowns. He currently ranks eighth in the entire NFL in rushing yards and 14th among all running backs in scrimmage yards. Sounds pretty explosive to me.
He also earned FedEx Ground Player of the Week honors in Week 4 after a 155-yard, three-touchdown performance against the Chicago Bears. Simms' assertions about him not being able to break tackles or get yards after contact are also ridiculous when one looks at the numbers.
Jeanty has run for 313 yards after contact and has broken 22 tackles this season, according to Pro Football Focus. He also leads the league in broken tackles according to Pro Football Reference. Pretty good for a guy that can't break tackles or pull away from contact.
While he will have to continue his strong play to solidify himself as one of the league's top running backs, he is well on his way to doing just that. Despite relatively poor play from the offensive line, which is now missing Kolton Miller, Jeanty has shown that he has the talent to be a star in Las Vegas, no matter what Simms says.