1. What Spytek and Carroll liked about Ashton Jeanty
When asked what stood out about Ashton Jeanty as a prospect, Pete Carroll first pointed to his elusiveness as a runner.
“There’s a lot of things to talk about, but one of the things is he was hard to tackle,” Carroll said. “I mean, guys couldn’t get him on the ground. … That skill to make people miss and to bounce off tackles and to use the force of the tacklers, he had marvelous talent in that regard.”
“I think the word is dynamic for us,” Carroll added. “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, and that’s just such an exciting aspect to add to our football team. We just feel very fortunate.”
In addition to what they saw on film, the Raiders spent extensive time vetting Jeanty’s personality and background.
“We did a very complete process with him,” Carroll said. “John organized it, we saw him at the Combine, and we saw him in the 30 visit here. And so, we really had tremendous insights into the person and his goals, his desires, his makeup, his mentality. I thought it was an excellent job. We were very committed because we had so much information.”
According to Spytek, Jeanty’s love for the game was something they valued as well.
“He’s got such a unique story,” Spytek said. “I’m really excited for you guys to meet him. … He comes from a military family, and his dad was stationed, I think he told us in Naples, and here’s this kid that’s got this love affair with football and he’s in Naples, Italy, trying to figure out how to play football. … And then his dad finished his career in the military, and they got to kind of pick where they wanted to live, and they picked the Greater Dallas Area because of the quality of football there. As a junior, he’s playing behind a guy that’s a running back – and he’s at Central Florida now, he told us – so he played slot receiver, and all he ever wanted to do was play football. He’s a physical runner, but he’s a dynamic runner, and we just kind of fell in love with his story and his love affair with football.”
