Travis Etienne looking over his shoulder after dreadful outing for Jaguars in Week 1

The Jacksonville Jaguars lost 20-17 to the Miami Dolphins in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season. What's frustrating is that they had a favorable chance of coming out on top but ultimately came up short because of self-inflicted wounds. One blunder that ended up having a huge impact on the outcome of the game was a fumble running back Travis Etienne had in the third quarter. When you add his underwhelming play, the former Clemson Tiger finds himself looking over his shoulder.

More often than not, teams can overcome turnovers. The trouble with Etienne's issue was that it came near the Miami end zone. If he had gotten in, the Jags would've been 20-7 and there would've been a huge swing in momentum.

Instead, the Dolphins recovered and proceeded to score on the following play to make it 17-14. Not long after, and still with a three-point lead, Jacksonville made the puzzling decision of going for it on fourth-and-1 on their own 32-yard line. Who was tasked with making the play? Etienne.

In his defense, the Louisiana native didn't have good blocking up front. That said, he left much a bit desired in his first game of the 2024 season, averaging 3.8 yards per carry. Meanwhile, fellow running Tank Bigsby toted the rock 12 times for 73 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per carry.

Bigsby's performance is more surprising when you take into account that he was unremarkable as a rookie, averaging 2.8 yards per carry and making puzzling mistakes that directly led to turnovers. Despite his struggles, Jacksonville didn't lose their confidence in him and he's repaid their trust with a strong performance in the season opener.

Travis Etienne must step up for the Jaguars if he doesn't want to be phased out in favor of Tank Bigsby

Travis Etienne didn't deflect and instead held himself accountable for the fumble, pointing out that it was a turning point in the loss.

"I feel like I had great fight, just kind of a momentum swing whenever I'm in the red zone," Travis Etienne told the local media after the bout. "I just got have my hands on the ball, and I feel like it's kind of like a turning point in the game, and I just got to be better for my team."

Etienne goes on to say that they just need to flush the loss, watch the tape, and prepare for the next game.

While the coaching staff won't outright bench Travis Etienne, they will surely consider giving Tank Bigsby a bigger workload, and why wouldn't they? The former has registered back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons but faltered in Week 1. He will still get his chances but if he struggles, the Jaguars won't hesitate to roll with Bigsby.

This doesn't bode well for Etienne, who surely wants to get a contract extension after seeing Trevor Lawrence, cornerback Tyson Campbell, and defensive end Josh Hines-Allen get paid in the offseason. The biggest roadblock for the former first-round pick to get a new deal is that he plays running back, a position that's been devalued in recent years.

Besides Christian McCaffrey, you won't see many running backs get top-market contracts, and if Etienne continues to struggle, he will have a hard time convincing the Jaguars' brass that he's deserving of a new deal.

From the team's perspective, they wouldn't feel the need to give Etienne an extension if he's struggling and Bigsby is thriving.

The good news is that there's still ample time in the regular season and the opener was an outlier rather than a sign of things to come. It will be up to Travis Etienne to prove they can trust him to win games.

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