The Las Vegas Raiders kicked off the 2025 NFL season with a momentous 20-13 win on the road against the New England Patriots. The Pete Carroll-led Raiders are now 1-0 heading into a Week 2 primetime matchup against their AFC West foe Los Angeles Chargers on Monday Night Football.
Back in April, Las Vegas came under fire a bit for the selection of Ashton Jeanty at No. 6 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. Many felt that the team had bigger holes to fill, and conventional wisdom would indicate that taking a running back in the first round is poor roster building.
But through just one week, Jeanty proved all those doubters wrong. Despite terrible run blocking against an elite Patriots defensive line and not even having his best stuff on Sunday, Jeanty also proved the Raiders' risky selection right.
Raiders' Ashton Jeanty makes his mark despite not having his best stuff
On paper, Jeanty's game was not too impressive: 19 carries for 38 yards and two catches for two yards. This averaged out to just 2.0 yards per carry and 1.0 yards per catch. But, thankfully, stats do not always correlate to performance.
Jeanty came out like gangbusters in the first quarter, running for a handful of big chunks and asserting his will against New England. His carries tapered off at the end of the half, and the offense struggled, but he remedied that in the second half.
He ran for his first career touchdown on the team's first drive in the third quarter. While he initially got held up at the line of scrimmage, Jeanty made a massive second effort, contorting his body to punch the ball in for six.
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Not only did he make a handful of solid plays with the ball in his hands, but Jeanty also made a smattering of great blocks in pass protection that allowed Geno Smith to uncork deep passes to wide-open Raiders down the field.
With the game in the balance as the Patriots performed an onside kick with just seconds left in the contest, Jeanty made a heads-up play, batting the ball out of bounds to secure the Raiders' possession. This allowed them to kneel the ball one time and finalize the victory.
Jeanty did all of this despite incredibly poor run blocking against a strong defensive front and less-than-ideal conditions on a rainy field. He didn't even bring his best stuff on Sunday, not even close, and he's already helping the Raiders win big games on the road. Looks like a brilliant pick so far.