Jaguars Waive Former 5th Round Pick Ryquell Armstead, Leaving Roster at 89
The Jacksonville Jaguars have waived former 2019 draft pick and third-year running back Ryquell Armstead, the team announced on Monday, leaving the roster at 89 players and primed for an addition.
Armstead was a fifth-round selection out of Temple in 2019, with the Jaguars investing the No. 140 overall pick in a player who would be their No. 2 running back behind Leonard Fournette in 2019.
Armstead rushed 35 times for 108 yards as a rookie, while also catching 14 passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns. He didn't play in 2020 due to spending the season on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported last October that Armstead had been hospitalized twice.
Armstead's placement on the COVID-19 list last season helped open the door for James Robinson to take over as the team's top running back following Fournette's release a week before the first game of the season. Armstead didn't play a snap in 2020 while Robinson was one of the most utilized running backs in the NFL.
The Jaguars' running back room had grown quite crowded over the course of the last few months. The Jaguars signed veteran running back Carlos Hyde to a short-term deal in March, reuniting him with his former college head coach in Urban Meyer, the general manager who drafted him in Trent Baalke, and his offensive coordinator from 2020 in Brian Schottenheimer.
Jacksonville also selected Clemson running back Travis Etienne at No. 25 overall in April's NFL Draft. Considering the Jaguars already had a 1,000-yard rusher in the mix before these two additions, it is fair to say the available spots inside the team's running back room have dwindled.
Etienne figures to be one of the team's most important offensive players, while Robinson was the team's best weapon a year ago. Add in Hyde's experience and Etienne's versatility and there are few snaps left to be handed out.
"We actually made the decision rookie camp — the majority, I don’t know if it was 100 percent — all his individual training was at wide receiver. That’s the reason we drafted him is the opportunity to be a dual threat guy and our history as long as we’ve had a guy like that and we saw him as a guy like that in the draft this year," Meyer said about Etienne on Saturday.
"Right now we’re focusing on the fundamentals of wide receiver play, learning the offense from wide receiver. Like I said, worst case scenario is you have a running back that’s elite with receiver skills and best case scenario he’s a legitimate dual threat guy.”
The Jaguars roster now sits at 89. The Jaguars have been tied to former Florida Gators and Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow for the last several weeks as a tight end convert. Meyer said on Saturday that the Jaguars would continue the Tebow conversation before Monday.
“I’ve leaned on my staff for that, and I imagine a decision is going to be soon. We wanted to have them, because I have a new tight end coach as well, watch a guy like Luke [Farrell] and just get a feel for it because they’re the ones who put him through a tryout a couple times and see if he can help us win," Meyer said.
"We have not had that — I imagine Sunday, we’ll come in — all our focus is on the guys right now, and then we’ll have a chat Sunday.
