The Jacksonville Jaguars' Bhayshul Tuten has been one of the most popular sleepers in 2026 fantasy football drafts. He's an explosive second-year running back who's ostensibly taking the lead role from Travis Etienne Jr., who had a career year under excellent run game schemer Liam Coen in 2025.
It may not be the superstar-making opportunity some expect for Tuten, however. Chris Rodriguez, who Coen coached collegiately at Kentucky, is listed as co-starter along with Tuten on the Jaguars' depth chart, sparking concern within the fantasy football community.
Here's how fantasy football managers should view the Jaguars' backfield.
Chris Rodriguez 2026 fantasy football outlook
The former Washington Commander signed a two-year, $10 million deal, enough of an investment to indicate Jacksonville will
feature him to some degree. Rodriguez, 25, lacks top end speed and isn't the most agile back, but he has quality vision and runs hard. Those are qualities coaches adore. It's still hard to expect him to be fantasy relevant, however. He'll vulture the occasional touchdown from Tuten but won't get enough carries to be more than a FLEX play.
Bhayshul Tuten 2026 fantasy football outlook
The co-starter thing is not ideal. But Tuten is enough of a talent to put up numbers with even half the touches, and he'll likely get more than that. The former Virginia Tech star is electric in the open field and has 4.32 speed, plus he showed last year he can make plays in the passing game. Rodriguez and LeQuint Allen Jr. will likely get the goal-line and third-down work, respectively, but Tuten should be the preferred back on early downs. With Trevor Lawrence and Coen entering Year 2 after emerging as one of the NFL's best quarterback-coach duos late last season, Tuten will be part of a high-flying offense and is certainly worthy of fantasy RB2 status.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Should Bhayshul Tuten fantasy football managers be worried about Chris Rodriguez?
