The 10 best running backs in the history of the Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars may have had a shortage of Super Bowl opportunities, but that's not for lack of effort by the stable of running backs. From Fred Taylor and James Stewart to Maurice Jones-Drew and, well, Fred Taylor, they've even put together a handful of one-two backfield punches that would make most other NFL franchises teal with envy.

Our task is to put the best of the best in order, just as we previously did with the organization's best quarterbacks.

Whether power backs, dual-threat options, or shifty ball-carriers who never seemed to get hit in the open field, Jaguars running backs have generated plenty of production as both rushers and receivers. Five different players have topped 1,000 rushing yards in a single season, but we're going 10 deep.

Criteria for selection

More than traditional metrics (rushing yards, receiving yards, yards per carry, touchdowns, etc.) will factor into our determination of the top running backs in Jaguars history, though those statistics certainly matter. After all, they're pretty good measures of production, even if context always matters.

Of course, so does perception. And awards. And reputation among the fanbase.

Greg Jones earned bonus points because of the sacrifices he made for the betterment of the organization. Maurice Jones-Drew's popularity and the attention he garnered from the fantasy football community must be kept in mind. Hell, Natrone Means has a singular play that gives his legacy a substantial boost.

In short, we're looking at the totality of a career from all angles and ranking these running backs by their talent, their production, and the overall value they provided to the franchise.

The top 10 running backs in Jacksonville Jaguars history

10. Natrone Means

Caught in the backfield, Natrone Means danced around before an onslaught of Buffalo Bills defenders tried to take him down in three-on-one fashion. He had other ideas. Bouncing off them, he burst around the right edge, sprinted down the sideline, and dove into the end zone just inside the pylon with Bills safety Matt Stevens draped all over him to give Jacksonville a 17-14 lead in the second quarter of the 1996 AFC Wild-Card Round.

That one play, part of an eventual 30-27 victory in which Means recorded 175 yards and the score on 31 carries, stands out as the capstone of the bruising back's brief tenure with the Jaguars. But while it remains one of the more memorable moments in franchise history, it wasn't all Means provided.

Though the the 5-foot-10, 245-pound back wasn't as explosive as he was during his prime seasons with the San Diego Chargers, he was still a veritable bowling bowl who ran through attempted arm tackles like he was in a field of wheat. Over his two years in Jacksonville, he ran the ball 396 times for 1,330 yards and 11 scores — a lower per-carry clip (3.4 YPC) but a stat line that still showcased his nose for the end zone and success in goal-to-go situations.

9. Stacey Mack

Considering Stacey Mack joined the Jacksonville Jaguars as an undrafted free agent out of Temple in 1999 and spent four of his five NFL seasons with the organization, checking in at No. 9 is an impressive accomplishment.

Though he began his career as more of a fullback and a contributor on special teams, he positioned himself to earn playing time following a Fred Taylor injury in 2001 and had the best season of his career, scampering for 877 yards and nine touchdowns while adding 23 catches for 165 yards and another score through the air. That accounted for nearly half of his lifelong production.

Mack's physical running style curried favor with his head coach, Tom Coughlin, even if it never yielded a 1,000-yard season, any notable accolades, or much of a chance to rise higher than the back end of the organization's positional pecking order. Still, he remains just outside Jacksonville's top 10 in career rushing yards, and only three players in franchise history have recorded more rushing touchdowns.

8. Greg Jones

Technically a fullback for the vast majority of his eight-year Jaguars tenure, Greg Jones doesn't have the statistical accomplishments you might expect from the No. 8 finisher in these rankings.

He never tallied 1,000 yards — neither in a single season nor for the entirety of his NFL career, finishing with 272 carries for 913 yards (including his lone year with the Houston Texans). And though he did some damage in the passing game, logging 73 catches for 471 yards and three scores, he never excelled there, either. Instead, he made his mark by paving the way for more talented ball-carriers.

That just wasn't always the plan.

More of a traditional running back earlier in his post-Florida State career, albeit a pound-it-between-the-tackles one, Jones had to adjust after a torn ACL suffered during the 2006 preseason kept him out for a full year and sapped him of the explosion he needed to keep earning carries. So he adjusted, showing humility rather than ego.

Jones became such an effective lead blocker that he helped pave the way for Maurice Jones-Drew's 2011 rushing title and bounced aside myriad linebackers throughout his spotlight-free time helping the Jaguars' running game.

"When [Jones-Drew] makes a big run, I'm going to be one of the first guys to congratulate him," Jones said in 2010, per Vito Stellino of the Florida Times Union. "At the end of my career, don't talk about me. Talk about the runners I blocked for."

7. T.J. Yeldon

T.J. Yeldon was always tough to bring down. He had a quick enough first step to hit holes with momentum when he wasn't displaying his trademark patience behind the line of scrimmage, and he was just slippery enough to create awkward tackling angles, sometimes giving the impression that his jersey was coated with non-stick spray.

But between injuries (a groin injury and a sprained right MCL kept him out of four games as a rookie) and the Jaguars' personnel decisions, he didn't capitalize on the promise that made him a 2015 second-round pick and helped him scamper for 1,019 yards from scrimmage and three scores as a rookie.

Jacksonville brought Chris Ivory aboard in free agency with a five-year, $32 million contract during the ensuing offseason and then spent the No. 4 overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft on Leonard Fournette. Yeldon went from that promising rookie campaign to recording 777 scrimmage yards and two scores as a sophomore, and that was as good as it got.

He became a third-down/pass-catching back (with some success, to be fair) in 2017 and 2018 before departing for the Buffalo Bills and leaving what-if roster-move retrospectives in his wake.

6. Travis Etienne Jr.

Though Travis Etienne Jr. was nominally a running back when the Jaguars selected him at No. 25 overall in 2021, the organization had bigger ideas. He was immediately hailed as an all-purpose weapon who could showcase his explosive speed and open-field shiftiness as a screen recipient, slot receiver, or any-down back.

His body had other ideas.

The Clemson product suffered a Lisfranc injury in his second preseason game and wound up on season-ending injured reserve, delaying his professional debut until the 2022 season. But once he made it on the field, he started to remind the world of his talent, rushing for 1,125 yards and five touchdowns at a 5.1-yards-per-carry clip and reeling in 35 passes for another 316 yards. One year later, he started to show off his nose for the end zone, recording 1,484 scrimmage yards and 12 total touchdowns as a reliable safety valve for Trevor Lawrence.

Entering the 2024 campaign as a 25-year-old expected to make waves as one of Jacksonville's most dangerous offensive weapons, Etienne is still writing his NFL story. Seeing as he's already seventh in career rushing yards, ninth in scrimmage yards, and 13th in total touchdowns after the first two chapters, it could be quite the page-turner indeed.

5. James Robinson

After James Robinson's out-of-nowhere success in 2020, he seemed like a key cog in the Jaguars' future plans. After all, the 5-foot-9, 219-pound back had gone undrafted out of Illinois State before making Jacksonville's 53-man roster and becoming one of the precious few UDFA running backs to slot into a Week 1 starting lineup.

Ask Indianapolis Colts defensive backs Khari Willis and Isaiah Rodgers how Robinson's debut went if you want a firsthand take.

Not only did Robinson carry the ball 16 times for 62 yards, but he also caught a swing pass in the backfield, jumped over Rodgers and Willis, whose ankle-grasping tackle attempt only produced a slight stumble, and kept rumbling for a 28-yard gain that swung the fourth-quarter momentum in favor of the eventual victors. One week later, Robinson validated his debut efforts with 120 scrimmage yards and his first career touchdown.

By the end of his rookie season, Robinson had seemingly established himself as the back of the future, recording 1,070 rushing yards and seven scores, as well as 49 catches for 344 yards and another three trips to paydirt. Only Dominic Rhodes, LeGarrette Blount, and Phillip Lindsay had ever joined him as undrafted 1,000-yard rookie rushers.

But that was the high point.

Carlos Hyde's arrival meant fewer touches during the 2021 season, though Robinson still scored eight times before tearing his Achilles in Week 16. Drained of some quickness when he returned, he continued to fade toward the periphery with Travis Etienne Jr. added into the fold before the Jaguars traded him to the New York Jets for a conditional sixth-round pick.

4. Leonard Fournette

An ankle sprain and a bruised quadriceps kept Leonard Fournette out of one game apiece during his inaugural season with the Jaguars, though he still powered his way to 1,040 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground over 13 games after becoming the No. 4 overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft, selected behind only Myles Garrett, Mitchell Trubisky, and Solomon Thomas. As a second-year back, recurring hamstring strains helped him to just eight appearances.

Why "helped?"

Because Fournette also contributed to his own absences in non-injury fashion. He ruined a stellar showing against the Buffalo Bills (18 carries for 95 yards and two touchdowns) when he got in a fight with Shaq Lawson during a substantial brawl between the two squads, was ejected, and then received a one-game suspension and had to watch a touchdown-free display of offensive ineptitude against the rival Indianapolis Colts in Week 13.

That about sums up Fournette's tenure with the Jaguars. His talent was beyond reproach, and the same was often true of his production. He is, after all, No. 4 in rushing yards and No. 6 in rushing touchdowns on the franchise leaderboard while only fumbling three times in his 666 carries.

But he got in his own way when injuries weren't doing the job for him, preventing him from becoming the true franchise back and organizational cornerstone Jacksonville envisioned when investing top-five draft capital into his uber-athletic and powerful 228-pound frame. His attitude didn't always thrill the fanbase, either.

Fournette quickly fell out of favor with the franchise, which declined his fifth-year option and then waived him during the 2020 season — an inglorious exit for such a promising back who'd already provided so many highlight-reel plays during a three-year stint filled with tantalizing but unrealized upside.

3. James Stewart

Going to work for an expansion team is never an easy task, but such was life for the No. 19 overall pick of the 1995 NFL Draft. Operating behind an inexperienced, oft-overmatched offensive line, James Stewart led the inaugural Jaguars outfit with 525 rushing yards and two touchdowns as a rookie before increasing his output to 723 yards and eight touchdowns in 1996.

Maybe his career would've played out differently if he hadn't torn his left ACL three games into the 1997 season, paving the way for the Jaguars to bring in Fred Taylor as a new franchise back. Maybe not, considering Jacksonville had already added Natrone Means in '96.

Regardless, tear it he did, and his production dipped dramatically when Taylor entered the fray in 1998. Stewart at least remained effective as a backup and was able to step into the starting lineup after injuries created an opportunity in 1999. That year, he ran for 931 yards and a career-best 13 touchdowns before departing for the Detroit Lions in the offseason and filling the unenviable role of replacing Barry Sanders.

The former Tennessee standout was never a glamorous running back. He didn't have a flashy personality, rarely broke a defender's ankles, and preferred to punish his adversaries by wearing them down with relentless effort between the tackles. But that style still allowed him to record 3,804 scrimmage yards and 38 total touchdowns for Jacksonville, highlighted by his unforgettable 102-yard, five-touchdown masterclass in a 38-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles during Week 7 of the 1997 season.

2. Maurice Jones-Drew

Though Maurice Jones-Drew and James Stewart are brushing shoulders in these rankings, make no mistake about it. We've entered an entirely new tier, one populated only by the two obvious best running backs in franchise history. (Plus, this bowling ball of a football player would've had trouble literally brushing shoulders with the 6-foot-1 Stewart.)

Maybe you remember the tree trunks Jones-Drew let masquerade as thighs. Perhaps you recall one his many nicknames fondly: Pinball Wizard, Pocket Hercules, MJD, etc. His unforgettable block of Shawne Merriman or 303 all-purpose yards against the Colts, highlighted by a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, might spring to mind first.

Jones-Drew was a fan favorite throughout his time in Jacksonville, and for obvious reasons.

He generated plenty of highlight-reel fodder while racking up 8,071 rushing yards, 68 rushing touchdowns, 2,873 receiving yards, and 11 receiving touchdowns. His playing style was relentlessly entertaining, whether he was displaying a degree of power disproportionate to its 5-foot-7 container or disappearing amid a sea of bodies, only to break out of the pack and find nothing but green ahead.

With three Pro Bowl appearances and one All-Pro First Team nod, stemming from his league-leading 1,606 rushing yards in 2011, Jones-Drew also happens to be one of the most decorated players the Jaguars have ever trotted out in the backfield — or anywhere on the field, really.

He thrived against the hated Colts, displayed the statistical unselfishness needed to take a knee at the 1-yard line and run out the clock rather than score an extra touchdown, dreamed up plenty of unique celebrations, and functioned as a true face of the franchise throughout his eight memorable seasons.

1. Fred Taylor

Talented and effective as Maurice Jones-Drew may have been, he still falls well shy of Fred Taylor, the obvious No. 1 running back in the history of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Selected out of Florida with the No. 9 pick of the 1998 NFL Draft, Taylor made an immediate impact with the fledgling organization. Though he trailed Randy Moss and Peyton Manning in the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year voting, that doesn't discredit the 1,644 scrimmage yards and 17 touchdowns he scored during his first professional season.

And Taylor was just getting started.

Over the course of 11 seasons (before he finished his career with a New England Patriots stint Jaguars fans have likely wiped from their memories), Taylor was a perennial 1,000-yard rusher who succeeded in every area imaginable. He ran with speed and power, and the sturdiness of his frame constantly seemed to catch defenders by surprise. He left early-career feelings about his fragility in the dust, and he even fit in well alongside Jones-Drew during the later stages of his career.

More than 3,000 career rushing yards clear of every other back in franchise history, Taylor will remain on this top rung of the positional ladder for quite some time.

The 10 best running backs in Jacksonville Jaguars history by yards from scrimmage