Boise State Broncos Star Not Considered Top-5 Recent Running Back Draft Prospect

The Boise State Broncos star running back Ashton Jeanty is not considered one of the best at his position in recent college history.

Saturday, August 31, 2024; Statesboro, Georgia; Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty gains yardage against Georgia Southern during the season opener on Saturday, August 31, 2024 at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Georgia. / Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Boise State Broncos running back has taken college football by storm, but he might not be the best NFL prospect at the position in recent history.

Ashton Jeanty has been one of the biggest success stories in the NIL era, and is exactly what many people hoped would come from the new rules.

He was a three-star recruit out of high school that chose a smaller school in the Broncos. It's not even that Boise State is a small school, it's just that teams around their level will now constantly see their players get poached for bigger opportunities.

On3Sports has Ashton Jeanty as worth $1.6 million in NIL value, picking most of that up during his breakout year in college.

It all worked out in the end for him, though, as he had a historic campaign despite losing out on the Heisman trophy along the way.

He is widely expected to be a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft, something becoming exceedingly rare for running back.

Where exactly does he rank among other first round draft pick backs, though? ESPN's draft expert Mel Kiper had an answer that might ruffle some feathers.

Kiper had Jeanty outside of his top-five, but he is only behind some heavy hitters in the sport.

Ranked right above the Broncos star was former LSU Tigers standout Leonard Fournette.

Fournette and Jeanty might have been the two most fun backs to watch in college on this list, but this is one ranking that could definitely be disputed.

Both extremely hard to bring down, but in different ways. Fournette would run straight through players while Jeanty uses elusiveness and contact balance, which much closer matches NFL running backs of the last 10 years.

The other backs, while Jeanty might have had better individual seasons than, are harder to argue with.

Christian McCaffrey, Bijan Robinson, Ezekiel Elliot and Saquon Barkley finished the list out.

McCaffrey and Robinson were both athletic freaks that also contribute to the offense as receivers. Jeanty had 40 catches last year, but it isn't the same.

Elliott and Barkley were both just super human athletes that were among the best players at simply running the ball.

As for Barkley especially, there's not much that Jeanty could have done to catch up. Pure genetics gave the former Penn State Nittany Lions star a leg up.

The Boise State back is still clearly among the best running back prospects in recent history and will get a chance to prove it on a national stage against the Nittany Lions on Tuesday night in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

All of the other stars on the list would have been glad to be around in the NIL era like Jeanty, as each one could have set records.