Ashton Jeanty is a star, but he’s no Saquon Barkley – and here’s why

Ashton Jeanty will be the first running back selected in the first round of Thursday night’s NFL Draft. When he’s selected, you’ll hear this phrase uttered, either as a question or in definitive terms, more than a few times: “Ashton Jeanty is the best running back prospect since…” 

Jeanty is the type of prospect who demands historical comparisons because his unanimous favorability over his contemporaries fails to provide context. He’s coming off a dominant year in which he finished second in Heisman Trophy voting and threatened Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record, though ultimately falling short. Perhaps fittingly, his legendary final season at Boise State came to an end against Penn State, the program that produced the past decade’s historical benchmark for running back prospects and the most likely name to follow that statement: Saquon Barkley. 

Jeanty is worthy of historical comparisons

For years at the quarterback position, Peyton Manning was the standard of a surefire No. 1 overall quarterback prospect until Andrew Luck replaced him as the most current example. Barkley did the same to Adrian Peterson when he became the No. 2 overall pick to the New York Giants in the 2018 NFL Draft. 

Since Barkley's selection and subsequent failure to transform the flailing franchise into a perennial winner over his six years in New York, the league has reevaluated the value of the running back position. Regardless of their greatness, in many ways running backs are contextual players, further proven by Barkley’s breakout 2,000-yard season behind one of the league’s best offensive lines in Philadelphia last season. 

After Barkley, the league hit pause on drafting running backs in the top 10, and it will be impossible to ever tabulate the number of talented young players who switched to other positions along their NFL trajectories as the league contractually devalued even the best running backs. But, everything, even the NFL, is cyclical, and with defenses selling out to stop the pass with fewer defenders around the line of scrimmage, running backs are back, and just in time for “the best prospect since...”

Bijan Robinson’s name was uttered alongside Barkley’s a bit during the 2023 NFL Draft process, but the former Texas Longhorn never fully measured up to Barkley’s greatness as a prospect. Whether he goes off the board at No. 5 to the Jacksonville Jaguars or slides to the Dallas Cowboys at No. 12 (almost certainly his floor), Jeanty has a much better chance of replacing Barkley than Robinson ever did. Jeanty is the best prospect since Barkley, but is he better?

Ashton Jeanty 2025 NFL Draft vs Saquon Barkley 2018 NFL Draft

Jeanty deserves his place as one of the great running back prospects of this generation. The 5-foot-9, 215-pound back ran for 2,601 yards as a junior at Boise State with 30 total touchdowns, 36 rushes of 15 or more yards, and 152 missed tackles forced while averaging 70 yards per carry. He had more yards after contact (1,970) than any player had rushing yards last season (2nd Cam Skattebo 1,712), and cleared 1,000 rushing yards before taking his 100th carry. 

His vision is excellent, and he has more than the requisite combination of speed and power, but his true superpower is his contact balance. It’s nearly impossible to bring Jeanty down without wrapping up, and once he makes his way into the second level of the defense, he pinballs off of linebackers and safeties without ever breaking stride. 

That’s just one of numerous examples, and his video game numbers back up the eye test, but they also beg the question: What would Barkley have done in the Mountain West? 

Jeanty will be making a massive jump from Group of Five football to the NFL. He’s built for it, and he dominated the Mountain West at a level that should ease any concern NFL evaluators would have about a small-school first-rounder, but it’s an important bit of context when comparing the Boise State product to the best prospects of this generation. And when discussing which prospect is more of a “sure thing,” multiple seasons of Big Ten production outweigh one extreme outlier season in the Mountain West. 

Jeanty had two games in 2024 against Big Ten opponents, facing Oregon early in the season and Penn State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal. Jeanty bludgeoned the Ducks for 192 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries, but was held in check by the Nittany Lions with 99 yards on 30 attempts with two fumbles. 

Any struggles against Penn State had more to do with defensive coordinator Tom Allen’s willingness to sell out to stop the run and his ability to trust his defensive backs on islands against Boise State’s pass catchers. If Jeanty was surrounded by a Big Ten quarterback and Power Conference-wide receivers, as Barkley was during his time in Happy Valley, it may have been a different story, but that game illustrates how much more difficult it is to produce against some of the best defenses in the country. 

While Barkley didn’t quite possess the Alvin Kamara-esque contact balance that makes Jeanty special when he was a prospect in 2018, Barkley had his own superpowers. The 6-foot, 233-pound superstar ran a 4.40 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine, showcasing his rare combination of strength and speed. Though what made Barkley unique as a prospect and continues to flummox NFL would-be tacklers is his elusiveness and acceleration out of lateral cuts. 

Barkley tended to hunt for those big plays too often, and early in his NFL career, he had to learn to take what was there instead of bouncing the play outside. Jeanty may not have such a glaring weakness to his game as Barkley’s questionable vision was back then. Still, even as a rookie, Barkley overcame it to the tune of a 2,000 scrimmage yard season with 15 touchdowns to win Offensive Rookie of the Year. 

Sure, Barkley swung for the fences too often, but he also hit plenty of home runs. Jeanty is a special prospect, but he doesn’t quite have the long speed of Barkley, and while that’s far from the most important aspect of a running back, when you’re splitting hairs between potentially generational prospects, it nudges the scale ever-so-slightly in Barkley’s direction. 

What ultimately separates the two is Barkley’s pass-catching prowess. He was a legitimate weapon out of the backfield at Penn State and caught 54 passes in his junior season. Barkley wasn’t just turning screens into explosive plays; he was making plays on the ball downfield on wheel routes, and at times even lining up in the slot. 

That element of Barkley’s game eased his transition to the NFL, and while Jeanty is a capable pass-catcher who will certainly stay on the field for third-downs, it’s not a strength the way it was for Barkley. 

It’s so easy to default to Barkley in this argument when he’s coming off a 2,000-yard season in the NFL, which entered him into the discussion as a potential Hall of Famer, but even stripping that away, he was the superior prospect. 

Jeanty is the best prospect since Barkley. He passes over a player like Robinson in the 2023 class, but 2018 is where the historical timeline of comparisons stops. The bar is higher than ever to be drafted in the top 10 as a running back, and Jeanty clears it with ease, but Barkley remains the standard for 21st-century running back prospects.