The Jacksonville Jaguars’ decision to trade James Robinson to the New York Jets cleared the way for Travis Etienne Jr. to take the lion’s share of the carries for the team. But it also means more snaps for JaMycal Hasty, who was bumped up to second on the depth chart at running back after the deal.
Hasty, 26, spent the first two seasons of his NFL career with the San Francisco 49ers before he was cut at the end of training camp. The Jaguars claimed Hasty off waivers and he quickly supplanted fifth-round rookie Snoop Conner as the third option in the Jacksonville backfield.
In Week 6, Hasty broke free for a 61-yard touchdown rush and now — with Robinson off to New York — he’s set to take on a bigger role that offensive coordinator Press Taylor says is well deserved.
“I think he’s earned the trust of a lot of guys; coaches, players, everything,” Taylor told reporters Thursday. “Our confidence in him has grown, I think his confidence in his own understanding of the system has probably grown.”
While it was becoming increasingly clear that Robinson wasn’t the best fit in Doug Pederson’s offense, the question remains if the Jaguars will struggle to convert short-yardage situations without him. Taylor said he’s confident all of the Jacksonville backs can thrive in any given situation, but he singled out Hasty as one who has shown it on the field.
“We have the versatility from our skill guys to be able to do a lot of different things, I think you saw that nobody anticipated the Indianapolis short yardage play, JaMycal taking it 60 yards,” Taylor said. “We needed a yard, and we were trying to emphasize that with him, we were confident that he was a guy that could go get a yard in that particular play, and he turned it into a 60-yarder. That was a short-yard situation, we put him on it, he did a great job executing it, everybody did across the board.”
Hasty scored one touchdown in each of his first two seasons with the 49ers, but recorded only 216 rushing yards during his time with the team. The former Baylor standout joined San Francisco as an undrafted free agent after the 2020 NFL Draft.