If there’s one thing that’s stayed consistent throughout the lifetime of the Jacksonville Jaguars, it’s that they’ve always had a darn good running back.
Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew are the first two names that come to mind, but let’s not forget about backfield pioneer James Stewart, or modern workhorses like Leonard Fournette, James Robinson, and Travis Etienne. Those names have led the franchise in rushing all but six times in its 31-season existence.
During this offseason’s free agency period,
Etienne cashed in on a four-year, $47 million deal with his hometown New Orleans Saints, leaving the running back room perhaps the No. 1 question surrounding the 2026 Jaguars.
“Last year, Travis Etienne was our bellcow. He was the back. He was the guy,” executive vice president of football operations Tony Boselli told 1010XL. “We love Travis. A lot of times, fans and people look at it and say, ‘Well they didn’t re-sign him, must not’ve liked him.’ That’s not the case at all. There’s a thing called the salary cap. We have X dollars, and when you invest in one area, it limits where you can invest in other areas.”
“We knew Travis was going to get paid a lot of money, as he should. He’s a very good football player. We also knew we wanted to be more efficient in the run game. Travis is great outside, big-play, really electric in the pass game. We saw that last year. Does so many things well. And talk about just a great guy, great in the locker room. We said, ‘Hey, we need to get better.’ I think we were 31st as far as 3rd-and-to-go yards last year.”
The numbers from Sports Info Solutions back that up. When handing the ball to a running back on third down last season, Jacksonville “moved those chains” at the second-lowest clip in the NFL (32.4%). On such plays, the Jags also ranked bottom-five in yards per attempt, yards after contact per attempt, Expected Points Added (EPA) per attempt, and success rate.
Etienne is a dangerous ball-carrier in the open field, but when the picture got muddy — as it so often does in the NFL — the Jaguars’ run game waned.
2025’s early-season mirage of a potent rushing attack eventually revealed itself as a struggling unit. Head coach Liam Coen called it the underlying “stink” of Jacksonville’s 8-0 streak to cap the regular season.
There’s some blame to go around. Jaguars running backs were hit at/behind the line of scrimmage on 37.6% of carries in Weeks 1-6, then 42.3% in Weeks 7-12, then a league-high 56.8% in Weeks 13-18. Midseason injuries to the tight end group somewhat limited Coen’s playbook. Maybe there was an unreported stomach bug in the running back room.
At the end of the day, though, Next Gen Stats charted the backfield with just 30 rushing yards over expected in 2025. That includes -40 rushing yards over expected from Weeks 13-18.
“Rushing yards over expected and yards after contact is what I give a crap about personally,” Coen said in late March. Jacksonville’s running backs as a whole ranked bottom-10 in both last season.
“It’s like, what are you doing outside of what we’re blocking? And what does that look like? Because I can’t coach that. Guys that get more than what’s there, I can’t coach that. The guys that break tackles at a high level, whether it’s via Reggie Bush, whether it’s with stiff arms, jumping over them, running through them, I don’t care how you do it, I just care that you do it, because I can’t coach it. … If the run is blocked for eight yards and we get eight yards, well, it’s kind of like, I need more, I want to see more.”
Based on reports about Kenneth Walker III and J.K. Dobbins, the Jaguars wished to add a star slugger in free agency. When that market dried up, Jacksonville looked to sign a player who regularly gets on base.
Enter Chris Rodriguez Jr., who rushed for 67 yards over expected last season. He ranked third among 51 running backs in percentage of runs that went for more yardage than expected (45.5%).
“I love C-Rod. He’s going to get downhill and he’s going to run somebody over,” tight end Brenton Strange said at training camp. “In those short-yardage situations sometimes last year, not saying anything about anybody, but that’s just the type of back we need. You need a back like that and you need somebody that’s going to get downhill and get those dirty yards. It’s all about the hidden yards. Can you get plus-two on contact? And C-Rod does that.”
“I think he’s going to be great for us because he can get those dirty yards,” quarterback Trevor Lawrence reiterated. “And he also has the capability to make people miss. So, I think he’s really well-rounded and he has been doing a good job for us.”
Count offensive coordinator Grant Udinski among those excited to work with Rodriguez. “He gives you an element of the run game that might not always be 80-yard runs, but when you look at it, how often are 80-yard runs really showing up in the NFL nowadays? Pretty few and far between, but what he does give you is the opportunity to still get explosive runs and then be efficient on the runs that might not always be perfectly blocked.”
There’s plenty of excitement in the Jaguars’ building for their newest running back.
Rodriguez is far from a household name. He was a three-star recruit, a sixth-round draft pick, and an inexpensive free agent signing. At this point in his career, he only has one 1,000-yard season on his Pro Football Reference page, and one accolade listed under his Wikipedia page: Second-team All-SEC (2021).
That 1,000-yard campaign and All-SEC nod coincided in 2021 — when Coen called plays for the Kentucky Wildcats.
Rodriguez captured a second-place finish in yards per game (106.1) and a top-five mark in yards per carry (6.1) among SEC running backs. Only six other players in the conference scored more touchdowns than his 12. It was a productive marriage between running back and playcaller.
“He just doesn’t get tackled,” Coen gushed on the John Keim Report after Washington drafted Rodriguez in 2023. “It’s so hard to evaluate running backs when you’re not live. And so I’d watch him, and I’d watch him go throughout [practice], and I went, ‘Yeah, okay, he’s a good player. Seems it, you can tell, maybe he’s got it in him.’ But we would go to scrimmage, and go to games, and it was a totally different movie. He was a kid that, just, nobody wanted to tackle. And, also, he gets better as the game goes.”
Coen has echoed those sentiments this offseason. “I think Chris will be a good added thump that we continue to need and get some of those hard yards, which is very difficult to see at this time of year [before pads come on],” he said in May. He added in July: “Until we play tackle football, it’s going to be very difficult for all of us here to gain a true appreciation for who he is and what he does … he’s one of those glass eaters. I mean, he’s going to run through a wall for his teammates, for his coaches, for this organization when the time comes.”
So when Rodriguez made his presence felt with a jarring hit on the first day of pads in training camp, Coen wasn’t surprised. “He did kind of what you think he’s going to do in a way, right?”
Because he has familiarity with the playbook, Jacksonville can slow-play Rodriguez’s return to action as he recovers from an offseason foot procedure. Coen said the offense is “running a lot of the concepts” that he used at Kentucky back in 2021. “There’s so much that we’re doing that may be different verbiage from what it was then, but very similar conceptually. So, I’m not worried about him at all, from is he going to be ready mentally to go when we hit training camp? Not worried about him. Not one bit.”
Indeed, Rodriguez has gradually ramped up throughout the past few weeks of practices. He appears on pace to be full-go for the season opener.
So… why is this really a discussion?
The Jaguars have their new RB1, don’t they?
Enter Bhayshul Tuten, who rushed for -18 yards over expected last season. His 3.7 average yards per carry ranked eighth-worst among 55 running backs.
It was not a hot start for the rookie running back — but that’s the thing, isn’t it? He was just a rookie.
There is certainly room for growth. We can feel confident about what eight-year SEC/NFL vet Rodriguez brings to an offense, but Tuten jumped from the CAA to the ACC to the NFL in consecutive seasons. He can’t possibly be done developing.
“You look at what Tut’ showed in terms of getting downhill on it inside the tackles that really wasn’t on his tape in college,” Coen said in the spring. “I think we can do a better job of giving him some opportunities, a little bit more, that fit his skillset as well in college, get him going in some of those instances, as well in the pass game, in the screen game. … Year two, let’s go be more creative. Now you learned ball security at a premium, what we’re looking for, the standard. Now let’s go take it to the next level.”
It’s easy to imagine what that “next level” looks like. As Coen mentioned, Tuten did a decent amount of dirty work between the tackles; he actually emerged as the top short-yardage back midway through the season. With Rodriguez being a natural candidate to fill that role, perhaps Tuten can seize more of the perimeter looks that used to go to Etienne.
Providing lightning to a backfield sure seems like something he’d be good at.
Anyone who scouted Tuten’s college tape probably wrote “great in space” about a billion times. His 4.32-second 40-yard dash tied De’Von Achane for the fourth-fastest in NFL Combine history among running backs. So now that the Jaguars have waved goodbye to Etienne and hello to Rodriguez, there’s an opportunity for Tuten to step into a more suitable role.
He’ll get the designer touches, Rodriguez will do the gritty running, and LeQuint Allen Jr. will continue to be the go-to pass protector on third downs.
The Jaguars don’t have a true RB1; they have a well-balanced committee.
Right?!
I understand that talk is cheap at this point in the NFL calendar. Coen is candid in front of a mic compared to most NFL coaches, but we shouldn’t take anyone’s word for gospel. Change comes quickly in this league.
Still, it’s hard not to come away from Jaguars practices without the feeling that there’s a gap at the top of the backfield.
Coen was asked about his top two backs after the Jaguars and Saints held a joint practice on August 17. He said of Rodriguez, “I think he had a couple nice downhill runs today that you like to see. I thought he had a nice pickup and blitz protection as well today. It’s day by day. He’s getting better and better. I’ve been pleased with his progress.”
He said of Tuten: “Yeah, I mean, the [40-yard dash] jumps out at you, right? From the Combine. He can run, he’s strong; he can run through contact. Right now, we just got to continue to work on his tracks, reading his keys, and just go play. Like, not overthinking where the ball maybe should go or could go, and just stick your foot in the ground and get north because when he does that, and he gets his shoulders square and downhill, it can be impressive. He can really run through arm tackles. I mean, arguably maybe a touchdown today on the screen, which was great to see, an area which we need to continue to improve on. So, I’ve been pleased with him, but we’ve got to take another step.”
Regardless of what occurs over the next month of training camp, joint practices, and preseason games, Rodriguez and Tuten will look to prove themselves on the field and earn extra opportunities. Rodriguez can earn ops by showing he has the full trust of his coaches and teammates; Tuten can earn ops by showing he has the legit talent to take over a backfield. Which will prevail?
As a still-developing player with clear athletic upside, Tuten has a wide range of outcomes. He could be Etienne-like (dangerous in the open field, less effective on dirty runs) or maybe even Achane-like (a bona fide superstar). But that’s a heckuva lot to live up to for someone who had 386 total yards in his first pro season. Tuten might be a gadget player who’s mostly just asked to outrun defenders.
To project him as a productive lead rusher is to project him as a player he’s not yet proven to be. Are we really expecting Tuten to grow into an above-average rusher overnight? Because he has wheels and the Jags have an alleged hole in their starting lineup?
The public seems to think that Tuten is the top dog over Rodriguez in Jacksonville. Though betting odds for rushing totals have yet to be released by major sportsbooks, there is a major discrepancy in their fantasy football Average Draft Position (ADP): Tuten is ranked as the consensus RB25 while Rodriguez is down at RB45. ESPN analyst Mike Clay, long respected for his NFL projections, forecasts a rushing line of 237/994/7 for Tuten and 101/432/3 for Rodriguez.
It’s easy to be swayed by the hope of a breakout season, but we’re not in a galaxy far, far away. This is the National Football League. A business with a “what have you done for me lately” mentality.
Personally, I’m expecting more from the guy with better historical rushing success and a previous relationship with the head coach/playcaller than the guy who is seemingly discussed more as the player he could be someday than the player he is now.
This chart is missing a key rushing metric: explosive play rate. I had trouble finding a data source for college stats, but in their NFL careers, Tuten has rushed for 10-plus yards on just 6% of his regular season carries compared to 12.6% for Rodriguez. Tuten’s average does rise to 9.2% (8 of 87) when including his Wild Card Round performance, but is that really saying much? Only 1 of the speedster’s 97 total touches from last season went for more than 20 yards.
For the record, I hope Tuten is awesome. I’m rooting for him to bear the torch and continue the legacy of Jaguars RB1s. May he lead the backfield for a hundred years.
But I’d like to see it at the NFL level, or at the very least hear about it from his NFL coaches, before I believe this apparent fictionalization of Tuten being a lead NFL running back. My money is on Rodriguez to emerge as the new face of Jacksonville’s backfield.
Jags fans, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
