As I've said numerous times, the difference between Jeanty being 5'8.5" and several other top tier RB's at 5'9" is negligible at best. With that said, I'll play this game as the writer obviously didn't "study" this as in-depth as he maybe should have. Here's a list of players that have 5,000+ yards from scrimmage (rushing/receiving) along with recent players from the past few years that have stood out.
Under 5'9"
Barry Sanders 5'8"- 18,000+ yards from scrimmage
Priest Holmes 5'8"- 11,000+ yards from scrimmage
Emmitt Smith 5'8"- 23,000+ yards from scrimmage (read below for more info on his "exact" height)
Warrick Dunn 5'8"- 16,000+ yards from scrimmage
Joe Morris 5'7"- 7,000+ yards from scrimmage
Kevin Faulk 5'8"- 8,000+ yards from scrimmage
Brian Westbrook 5'8"- 11,000+ yards from scrimmage
Darren Sproles 5'6"- 9,000+ yards from scrimmage
Maurice Jones-Drew 5'6"- 11,000+ yards from scrimmage
Justin Forsett 5'8"- 5,000+ yards from scrimmage
Ray Rice 5'8"- 10,000+ yards from scrimmage (career cut short after 6 years due to being an idiot off the field)
Gio Bernard 5'8"- 7,000+ yards from scrimmage
Devonta Freeman 5'8"- 7,000+ yards from scrimmage
Austin Ekeler 5'7"- 9,000+ yards from scrimmage
Devin Singletary 5'7"- 6,000+ yards from scrimmage
D'Andre Swift 5' 8"- 5,000+ yards from scrimmage
Jaylen Warren 5'8"- Averaged 1,000 yards from scrimmage the past 2 seasons
Devon Achane 5'8"- 1,500 yards from scrimmage this past season
Within 1" of Ashton Jeanty's height:
Travis Henry- 7,000+ yards from scrimmage
Dominick Davis (Williams)- 4,400 yards in under 3 seasons. Knee injury ended his career.
Julius Jones- 6,000+ yards from scrimmage
Frank Gore- 20,000+ yards from scrimmage
DeAngelo Williams- 10,000+ yards from scrimmage
Ahmad Bradshaw- 7,000+ yards from scrimmage
Mark Ingram- 10,000+ yards from scrimmage
Doug Martin- 6,000+ yards from scrimmage
Duke Johnson- 5,000+ yards from scrimmage
Aaron Jones- 10,000+ yards from scrimmage
Alvin Kamara- 12,000+ yards from scrimmage (slightly over an inch bigger 5'8.5" vs 5'9.6")
Kenneth Walker- Averaged 1,100 yards from scrimmage the past 3 seasons
Kyren Williams- Averaged 1,500+ yards from scrimmage the past 2 seasons
Jahmyr Gibbs- 2,000+ yards from scrimmage last year
Chase Brown- 1,300+ yards from scrimmage last year
Bucky Irving- 1,500+ yards from scrimmage last year
I highlighted the RB's in bold that I felt were true top tier difference makers at RB at some point in their career. To me exceeding 1,500 yards from scrimmage in a season is often a pretty solid barometer of that. In looking at this list, Jeanty is within .5 of an inch of the 2 of the top 4 rushing leaders in NFL history and within an inch of 3 of the top 4 rushing leaders in NFL history. There's likely others from the 80's/90's that I didn't list on here, but this seems like a pretty extensive list of RB's that are either the same size (under 5'9") or within 1 inch of Jeanty. It's also important to note that outside of Barry Sanders and maybe Emmitt Smith, Jeanty is the highest regarded prospect on this entire (above) list coming into the draft.
All of these heights were pulled directly from combine/pro day data via Draft Scout. Emmitt Smith is generally listed at 5'9" however, the only "exact" measurement I could find lists him at 5'8.8", which is hardly discernable from Jeanty's height.
https://draftscout.com/combine.php?GenPos=RB&DraftYear=2002&sortorder=LastName&order=ASChttps://bucswire.usatoday.com/story...cons-florida-state-seminoles-acc/79241137007/https://ras.football/2020/01/14/priest-holmes-ras/https://nationaltoday.com/birthday/emmitt-smith/
