Jaguars are a selfless bunch: 4 revelations from Day 7 presser in training camp
• The pass rusher is making strides
• RB Travis Etienne has worked on his craft
2. The Jaguars expect big things from Travis Etienne in Year 3
The Jags raised eyebrows when they drafted Travis Etienne with the second of two first-round picks in 2021. Why would they draft a running with James Robinson coming off a historical rookie campaign? Two years after the fact, it looks like a smart decision, even after you factor in that Etienne missed his rookie season with a Lisfranc injury.
Robinson is no longer the player that totaled 1,414 yards from scrimmage as a rookie after learning his Achilles near the end of the 2021 season. Meanwhile, Etienne has become an integral piece of the Jaguars' offense.
Coming off a season in which he racked up 1,125 rushing yards and five touchdowns, Etienne is expected to be even better in 2023. Head coach Doug Pederson told the media that the former Clemson Tiger has worked on his technique and believes he's ready to have an even bigger impact in Year 3.
It's one of the things that when we looked at his game this offseason, back in February, March, before the players came back, one of the things that we noticed was just him attacking the whole kind of downhill, shoulder square, attack line of scrimmage, finding that crease where a lot of times you'll see him try to bounce," Pederson said. "So we were able to show him and really emphasize shoulder square, anticipating where the whole could be, and trusting that and he's done an outstanding job. He's bought into that, he sees it. We've been able to show it to him. He's working on that and training camp fight and that's the next step for him."
It was his rookie year [last year], there's a long of things, you just don't hand the guy a ball and let him go, let him go run. Sometimes that happens but there's that skill and ability to anticipate a hole. We always talked about speed, speed through the whole, not the whole type thing and he's really embraced that this training camp and that to me is the next step for him, that 11, 12... 13 hundred yards start creeping up and maybe he's pushing 16-17 hundred yards as a rusher," Pederson said.
Based on Pederson's comments, it looks like the Jaguars expect Etienne to play an important role in 2023 even after the addition of rookie Tank Bigsby and D'Ernest Johnson to the backfield.