Ashton Jeanty Was the Dolphins’ Kryptonite in Week 1

Ashton Jeanty Was the Dolphins’ Kryptonite in Week 1

Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty is one of the more promising young players at his position in the NFL. The No. 6 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft boasts a lethal combo of speed and power and is a real dual-threat option, and he showed off those traits against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.

To put things simply, he was the Dolphins’ kryptonite and killed them both on the ground and in the air. Starting with on the ground, he finished with triple digits in rushing yards with 102 (a team-high) and seemingly rushed for first downs whenever he needed to.

He finished the game with an impressive seven first downs rushing, and his strength made him a difficult player for the young Dolphins defenders to tackle.

Moving on to the air, Jeanty was a lethal red-zone target for the Raiders. He notched a pair of receiving touchdowns to go along with 45 yards receiving. Two of the Raiders’ three touchdowns on the game came from Jeanty, for perspective.

Jeanty Exposes a Problem for the Dolphins Defense

Jeanty is primed for a big sophomore season after what he accomplished as a rookie in 2025. Across 17 starts, he ran for 975 yards and five touchdowns while also accumulating 346 yards receiving and the same amount of receiving touchdowns.

Jeanty isn’t the only Raiders player who put together a big game on Sunday, though, and the Dolphins’ defense left a lot to be desired as a whole. By the end of the game, Las Vegas had totaled a whopping 27 points and had scored at least seven points in three of the four quarters.

Quarterback Kirk Cousins is another big reason why the Raiders scored as many points as they did, and he was particularly on point early on in the game. In the Raiders’ opening drive (which ended in a touchdown), Cousins completed all nine of his passes for 64 yards and a touchdown.