Press Taylor: Jaguars 'Have a Pretty Good Stable of Backs'
A year after the Jacksonville Jaguars saw Travis Etienne carry the load for the rushing game, the Jaguars have different plans for 2023 -- plans that involve a deep group of running backs.
Etienne is still the Jaguars' top dog and is one of the most explosive and important pieces of the offense, but the Jaguars have made the investments behind him to be confident in a potential running back by committee approach instead of relying solely on Etienne.
Joining Etienne are a returning JaMycal Hasty, who will now go through a full offseason with the Jaguars after being picked up on wiavers ahead of Week 1 and spending the entire season with the Jaguars; Tank Bigsby, who the Jaguars used the No. 88 overall pick on; and free-agent addition D'Ernest Johnson, a special teams ace who has thrived when given the chance. And this doesn't include 2022 fifth-round pick Snoop Conner, who the Jaguars believed in enough to trade up for.
Last year's post-James Robinson running back was really just Etienne. Now, the Jaguars believe the running back position is one of their deepest.
"There's a possibility of keeping everybody fresh through the long run of the season," Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor said on Monday ahead of the start of OTAs.
"There are times, obviously, where Travis kind of gets the hot hand and you want to keep riding that wave. But now I think we have a pretty good stable of backs that complement each other and will all have a role in some way, shape or form."
Etienne rushed for 1,125 yards (5.1 yards per carry) with five touchdowns, while also catching 35 passes for 316 yards (9.0 yards per catch), recording nearly 1,500 total yards of offense in his first healthy NFL season. Etienne finished eighth among all running backs in rushing yards and was one of the NFL's most explosive rushers.
Hasty, meanwhile, became the Jaguars' No. 2 running back after they traded James Robinson and added 320 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns. Bigsby, meanwhile, was regarded by the Jaguars as one of the draft's top-five running backs in terms of speed, size, and yards after contact ability.
"In terms of the way we finished last year, I do think adding a guy like Tank and then JaMycal Hasty gets a chance now to sit in there from day one of install as opposed to he was essentially learning game plans every week last year. He never really had a foundation of the offense," Taylor said.
"And then those guys that have been in there, Snoop and [Travis] and those types of guys, adding D'Ernest to the mix, those guys are now sitting in there with an opportunity to, outside of D'Ernest, they know what we're talking about. When we say a word now they have a picture in their mind and then we get into the details of it and get a chance to clean up some of the things. So there's a lot of versatility in that room. There's a lot of guys that complement each other."
