Raiders' John Spytek Evaluates Ashton Jeanty Decision

“You better be greedy about the kind of player you’re looking at and reading about the kind of competitor and person and passionate football player you’re looking for, and so, we found that in Ashton,” Spytek said. “Some people maybe don’t value running back to a certain degree, I don’t know. I went to Michigan. We value the hell out of those guys. More importantly to me, he’s a great kid.”

Spytek elaborated on Jeanty’s high character.

“He was revered in that Boise State program because he treated people the right way and was a great running back, and he’s been every bit of that since he’s showed up here, too. When you talk to people around our building right now, the first thing they talk about with Ashton isn’t how fast he is or the fact that he never falls over, it’s, ‘Man, is he humble. He’s a great worker and treats his teammates the right way.’”

Spytek admitted he would have regretted not taking Jeanty.

“It’s about team building and what’s the right way to do it,” he said. “We had many conversations because it was a deep running back class. What’s the best order to this in? If we take Ashton here, who do we get in the second round? If we take this player here, then maybe we can come back in the second round and get a running back. 

This group of players, this position group, the more premier position groups, edge rusher, tackle, they’re going to probably be gone. Ultimately, we decided that Ashton was worth it, and to me, it’s the kind of person he is that elevated it. We can’t turn down 28 yards short of Barry Sanders and a humble person at No. 6. I’d go to bed every Sunday night wondering what Ashton Jeanty did somewhere else in the NFL ultimately if we didn’t take him.”

You can watch the full podcast episode with Spytek on the ‘3 and Out Podcast’ here.

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