Dabo Swinney says Jags are a ‘great’ fit for Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne

The Clemson coach was happy to see his former star offensive players land together in Jacksonville under coach Urban Meyer.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney may have a new favorite NFL team. After all, Jacksonville used both its first-round picks in 2021 to select his former players in Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne. Swinney, who knows the north Florida area well from his time tasked with recruiting the region as an assistant coach, said he thinks the pair will prosper in Jacksonville.

“First of all, I’m a big fan of Duval County. That was my recruiting area for a long time. … recruited a bunch of kids out of that area, all up, down I-10 and over to 95 and down in Orlando. So very familiar,” Swinney said. “I just think it’s awesome. I just think it’s a great situation for both of them.”

Both players will have a lot of expectations to live up to as first-round picks, but Lawrence, the first-overall pick in the draft, has a lot to prove, especially. Some may expect that it would take him a bit of time to adjust to the speed and stylistic differences of the professional game, but Swinney is convinced he will be able to pick up many of those concepts quickly.

“I remember the very first spring practice,” Swinney said. “I was so excited, and I’d seen him in camp before. I mean, to watch him throw the ball is just like, ‘wow.’ And that’s all great, but is he going to be able to handle the amount of installation that we’re going to, the pace we’re going to put things in? Can he make the adjustment, terminology wise? [Defensive coordinator] Brent Venables is not a guy that lines up in 4-3, Cover 2. Like Day 1, you’re getting like 10 blitzes thrown at you, that’s just how we do things.

“… And I mean, it was from Day 1, you just knew he was special mentally. His head may have been swimming, but you couldn’t tell it. I mean, he looked like he had been here for a couple of years his first practice.”

Lawrence will likely start Week 1 for Jacksonville, and he’ll have a lot of responsibility when that time comes. But this is something he’s been expecting for a long time, and Jags fans have known Lawrence would be the new franchise quarterback since the team secured the first-overall pick last December.

The Etienne selection, however, was a little more surprising. Meyer and his staff have described Etienne as a “slash” player, meaning he can line up both in the backfield as a running back and out wide as a receiver. Etienne made a lot of catches out of the backfield at Clemson, but he was still primarily a tailback. Transitioning to a more Percy Harvin-like role will certainly present its challenges, but Swinney thinks he’s prepared to handle them.

“He came a long way. He had never really caught the ball when we got him as a freshman and really didn’t have a lot of confidence. And this past year, he really went to another level,” Swinney said.

In spite of a 1-15 finish in 2020, Jacksonville’s offense wasn’t bad. In fact, there was a lot to be optimistic about. Now, with additions like Lawrence and Etienne, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to imagine that this could be an above-average unit in the league next season.

James Robinson the Jags’ player to cheer for in 2021, per NFL.com

The former undrafted running back was the fourth undrafted rookie ever to rush for 1,000 yards in 2020.

Who doesn’t love a good underdog story? Considering how many highly drafted players end up as busts (or at least disappointments relative to their draft slot), breaking through as an undrafted player is quite a long shot. Which is why it’s all the more special when players like James Robinson manage to do it.

There were certainly signs that he could be successful in the league when looking at his college career as he dominated at Illinois State finishing one yard shy of 1,900 yards rushing as a senior to go with his 18 touchdowns. He wasn’t expected to make the roster by some when he signed with them in April, but when it came time to announce the final 53-man roster, Robinson wasn’t just on it; he was the team’s starter at running back.

He finished tied for fifth in rushing with 1,070 yards to go with seven touchdowns on the ground, becoming just the fourth undrafted running back to rush for 1,000 yards as a rookie.

So it should be no surprise that in Adam Rank’s list of players to cheer for in 2021 for each team, Robinson is the selection for Jacksonville.

Robinson went out and crushed it as an undrafted rookie last season, and my friends down in Duval County rewarded him by drafting Travis Etienne in Round 1. Which, I can kind of understand. I mean, I suppose Shad Khan and Urban Meyer are more interested in winning games than helping my fantasy team. But damn, Robinson had to be so excited to play with Trevor Lawrence, and then the Jags draft the No. 1 overall pick’s Clemson teammate. Talk about a third wheel …

Though Rank speaks of the selection of Etienne as if it were a diss on Robinson, in actuality, it will probably help him tremendously. Robinson had a hefty workload in 2020. According to Pro Football Focus, he led all NFL backs in carry percentage last season.

As good as Robinson was, that just isn’t sustainable. Now that Jacksonville has added a “slash” player in Etienne (a guy who can lineup both in the backfield and as a receiver), it has a true change of pace back from Robinson.

Etienne’s presence may limit Robinson’s 2021 production, but it should allow the Jags to develop one of the most promising young backfields in football.

Clemson OC Tony Elliott excited to see Travis Etienne fulfill his potential with Jags

While Travis Etienne had a monster career while with the Clemson Tigers, his former OC believes the best is yet to come.

While Trevor Lawrence’s selection was the most noteworthy for the Jacksonville Jaguars in last week’s draft, it would be very difficult to find a fan who didn’t believe that the addition of his Clemson teammate, Travis Etienne, wasn’t a huge deal either.

While many fans didn’t expect the Jags to go with the Clemson speedster at pick No. 25, there is no doubt those same fans can see his potential. His former offensive coordinator from Clemson, Tony Elliott, can also be counted amongst the group who has high hopes for Etienne.

In an interview with Jaguars.com, Elliott expressed that he believes the best is yet to come for Etienne, who was an amazing player in college, but was just scratching the surface as a football player.

“What makes Travis special is he really doesn’t fully comprehend how good he is,” Elliott said to Jaguars.com this week. “It keeps him humble; it keeps him working. I’m amazed at some of the things he’s able to do on a football field. I can see the potential he still has ahead of him.

“There’s still more room before he reaches his ceiling.”

While with Elliott, Etienne was beyond productive and put up historic numbers for the Atlantic Coast Conference from a positional perspective. When his career with the Tigers was over, Etienne found himself with a whopping total of 70 touchdowns throughout 686 carries for 4,952 yards on the ground.

Now, with him joining an offense that ranked 28th overall, Urban Meyer has been vocal about turning Etienne into an all-around weapon, especially one who can contribute in the passing game. The reason the team seems to be high on that element of Etienne’s game is that he showed improvement in the category year after year, eventually finishing his career with 1,155 receiving yards and eight touchdown catches.

However, despite those figures, Elliot stated that Etienne had to learn how to be a receiving threat at first, as it wasn’t something he was asked to do in high school.

“He was in a Wing-T offense in high school, and he was hardly ever asked to catch the ball coming out of the backfield,” Elliott said”. He didn’t have a strong skill set. He was very natural catching the ball, but not a ton of confidence because he was never asked to do it. That showed when he got here.”

Clearly, Etienne figured it out, acquiring receiving totals of 432 yards and 588 yards during his last two seasons with the Tigers. That said, if he can continue to elevate his game there, while also continuing his production as a rusher, the Jags’ offense could reach new heights in 2021.

Jags still close to the bottom in post-draft power rankings from Touchdown Wire

Jacksonville isn’t expected to repeat in the bottom spot, but its draft haul didn’t improve its standing much according to these rankings.

Jacksonville was the worst team in football in 2020, finishing with a 1-15 record that landed it the first overall pick in the draft for the first time in franchise history. After an active offseason and draft that saw the Jaguars add a number of players at positions of need, they’re expected to improve from that last-place spot.

But according to the post-draft power rankings from Touchdown Wire, not by that much. Doug Farrar doesn’t have the Jags in the bottom spot (that placement is reserved for their division rival, the Houston Texans). But despite landing a franchise quarterback in the draft in Trevor Lawrence, Farrar doesn’t expect much more than a marginal improvement in 2021, putting Jacksonville at No. 31 in the power rankings.

The 2017 Jaguars went 10-6 and came one half of football in the AFC Championship Game against the Patriots from a trip to Super Bowl LII. Since then, the team has put up a 12-36 record (including a 1-15 mark in 2020), the worst over that time. So the crest toward a rebuild in 2021 was decisive. Hiring Urban Meyer for his first NFL coaching job was step one. An active free agency period in which they upgraded their secondary with Shaquill Griffin and Rayshawn Jenkins and their receiver group with Marvin Jones was step two. Step three was a draft class featuring the most obvious pick in quarterback Trevor Lawrence, taken No. 1 overall. The Clemson alum may be the most high-floor/high-ceiling prospect at the position since Andrew Luck, so good job there. Then, with their second first-round pick, Meyer went back to Clemson with running back Travis Etienne. You can question the need there, but Etienne projects well as an Alvin Kamara type who can nuke defenses moving from the backfield to the slot.

The Jaguars did a lot to advance their interests this offseason, but there’s so much to fix, and we have absolutely no clue how Meyer will handle the day-to-day rigors of the NFL.

The Lawrence and Etienne additions could make a Jags offense that was far from bad in 2020 fairly formidable. But Jacksonville’s defense was among the league’s worst last season, and Farrar doesn’t think the offseason additions will be enough to change that drastically in one year.

It’s certainly setting up to be a rebuilding year for the Jaguars, a position fans of the team are all too familiar with. But this time around, the franchise has the best prospect it has ever acquired in Lawrence, and better days appear to be on the horizon. Whether those days are in 2021 remains to be seen.

Fred Taylor discusses Jags’ additions of Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne

The former star Jags running back thinks the team did well in drafting the pair of Clemson standouts in the first round.

If there’s anyone that knows what it takes to succeed in Jacksonville, it’s Fred Taylor. Nearly inarguably the top player in franchise history, Taylor has appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot multiple times and finished his career with 11,695 rushing yards and 66 rushing touchdowns.

He also played with the best quarterback the franchise has ever had at the beginning of his career in Mark Brunell. So it should say something that even he is buying into the lofty expectations set for Lawrence. On a recent appearance on the “All Things Covered” podcast with Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden, Taylor compared Lawrence to another prospect who received “generational talent” hype — and lived up to it.

“Peyton (Manning) lived up to everything they thought he was going to be, and that’s what we all hope as Jaguar fans,” Taylor said. “We hope to get the same thing out of Trevor (Lawrence).”

Though Jags fans would certainly be thrilled if Lawrence’s career played out like Manning’s (who won two Super Bowls and was a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee), they’ll hope he has a stronger start than Manning. The former Jags rival threw more interceptions than touchdowns as a rookie, making his first season a rough one.

Luckily for Lawrence, he’ll have a familiar face to help him along. With the 25th pick in the draft, the Jaguars selected his college teammate in running back Travis Etienne. The move came as a pretty big surprise considering the production Jacksonville got from undrafted rookie running back James Robinson in 2020.

But Taylor said he understands the pick, saying that Etienne brings a level of dynamism to the franchise that it hasn’t seen since Maurice Jones-Drew was in his prime. Before becoming the Jags’ feature back, Jones-Drew spent the early part of his career as part of a 1-2 punch with Taylor, something Jacksonville could bring back with Robinson and Etienne.

“I’m okay with the pick, simply because he’s a guy that is very versatile,” Taylor said. “We haven’t seen that in Jacksonville, really since Maurice Jones-Drew. … There’s some quality in that selection, they are just going to have to find a way to mask what they didn’t get.”

Though Taylor is right that there were possibly higher-value targets still on the board when the team picked Etienne, practically all of them fell out of the first round, giving the team their pick of the bunch at No. 33 (which was ultimately used on Georgia cornerback Tyson Campbell).

Etienne may not have been a need for the Jaguars, but he adds another weapon to a young, up-and-coming offense that could be very solid in 2021 even if the defense continues to struggle.

Jags’ selection of RB Travis Etienne listed among NFL.com’s favorites

While some disagree, Lance Zierlein believes the Jags made a wise decision when they selected Travis Etienne with the No. 25 overall pick.

While Trevor Lawrence was the star of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 2021 draft class and star of the draft in general, the team’s other first-round pick, Travis Etienne, garnered a lot of buzz, too, as a former teammate of Lawrence. With his selection, the Jags made history by making the duo the first QB/RB pairing ever to be drafted by the same team in the first round after being teammates in college.

However, for NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein, the selection was a home run for reasons outside of history. In a recent article, he deemed Etienne’s selection as one of his favorites in Round 1 as it gave Lawrence a familiar face, and most importantly, a playmaker on offense.

There were three very good running backs in this draft, but I felt like Etienne was the best of the lot. Etienne went back to Clemson in 2020 because he wanted to accomplish his goals with his fellow teammates, and that is a quality Urban Meyer must love as he begins building his culture of competitiveness in Jacksonville. Etienne runs with extraordinary contact balance and can play on all three downs, offering Trevor Lawrence a familiar face and reliable teammate to go to battle with in their new journey at the next level.

There were some fans puzzled by the selection of Etienne, but many of them are viewing Etienne as a running back when the front office has come out to say they view him as an overall weapon. In other words, they see Etienne as a slot receiver, pass-catching option out of the backfield on third-downs, and much more. The reason for that is because the Jags’ offense lacked explosive plays last season — something that Urban Meyer has never been without as a coach.

With the selection of Etienne, the Jags can make things hard on opposing coordinators. Throughout his college career, he rushed for 70 rushing touchdowns throughout 686 carries and 4,952 rushing yards. In his last two years, he got better as a receiver, registering 432 yards and 588 yards, respectively. Those are figures that seemingly impressed the Jags who had the 28th ranked offense overall in 2020.

Poll: What grade would you give the Jags’ 2021 draft class?

The Jags have completed the 2021 NFL Draft and now it’s time for fans to grade the group.

After grabbing two Atlantic Coast Conference stars in Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne on Day 1, the Jacksonville Jaguars went into Day 2 hoping to add more impact players with the pair. Looking at their selections, it seemed that Urban Meyer, Trent Baalke, and co. emphasize athleticism and traits. Their selections on Friday, when it was all said and done, included Georgia cornerback Tyson Campbell, Stanford tackle Walker Little, and Illinois safety Andre Cisco.

Then came Day 3 on Saturday. The front office added some depth players with starter potential in Southern California defensive tackle Jay Tufele, Alabama Birmingham edge rusher Jordan Smith, Ohio State tight end Luke Farrell, and Georgia Tech receiver Jalen Camp.

It was quite an interesting haul, to say the least, as it appears Meyer is confident in his staff’s ability to help these players with strong athletic traits translate. If they are successful, they will have a strong contending team on their hands and one that will easily surpass last season’s 1-15 record.

However, we’d like to hear from you all on the topic. How would you grade the Jags’ 2021 draft class overall?

POLL:

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WATCH: Highlights of Jaguars No. 25 overall pick Travis Etienne

The Jags’ backfield got stronger after adding 2020 Consensus All-American running back Travis Etienne who has many highlight moments.

The Jacksonville Jaguars rounded up Day 1 of the draft by selecting Clemson Tigers running back Travis Etienne with the No. 25 overall pick.

The versatile runner will be reunited with his Clemson teammate in Jags No. 1 pick Trevor Lawrence. The pair dominated the college football realm from 2018-2020, winning a National Championship in the 2018 season. Etienne will join the backfield of the newly signed running back Carlos Hyde and the No. 3 rushing yards leader in 2020 in James Robinson.

Here are some highlights of Etienne, who was a 2020 Consensus All-American running back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buaBjg3NOi0

https://youtu.be/UOIenq1mB3U

https://youtu.be/f1pgJ2agQPs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCvCcPx6Ihs

 

https://youtu.be/CSS-1pit4bY