Healthy again after missing all of his rookie season with the Jacksonville Jaguars due to a season-ending Lisfranc injury he suffered in the preseason last year, former Clemson running back Travis Etienne was fully cleared for organized team activities and showed off the traits that enticed the Jaguars to take him with the 25th overall pick in last year’s NFL Draft – including his top-end speed.
The ultra-quick, athletic and explosive Etienne put his speed on full display in OTAs, and new Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor was quick to point that out this week while meeting with the media after the conclusion of OTAs, when asked what his early impressions of Etienne have been while working with him over the past few weeks.
“The speed’s real,” said Taylor, who enters his first season as the offensive coordinator for the Jaguars in 2022. “I mean that was obviously something everybody knew coming out of college, not having a chance to see a lot of the stuff he was able to do last year because he wasn’t able to play. So, the speed’s very real.”
Last year, before Etienne sustained the Lisfranc injury, the former consensus All-American as an all-purpose/athlete selection was getting work at wide receiver as well.
Head coach Doug Pederson and the new Jaguars staff apparently have a similar type of role in mind for Etienne, who saw most of his action as a receiver in a recent practice, according to CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones.
The versatile Etienne welcomes positional flexibility and is certainly open to the idea of being utilized by the Jaguars in a similar way to how Deebo Samuel has been deployed by the San Francisco 49ers — as a “wide back.”
As for how the Jaguars want to use Etienne this season, Taylor was asked about their plan for that.
“I think it’s going to kind of be a case-by-case basis, I guess,” he said. “Whatever’s going to give us the best opportunity to put Travis in position to succeed is what we’re going to do – whether that’s him as a receiver coming out of the backfield or as a running back leaving the backfield to be a receiver, whatever that may be. I think that kind of evolves as the season goes or week by week even really.”
The Jaguars have thrown a lot at Etienne in practice, and he has responded really well, according to Taylor.
“He did a good job of just showing understanding of the different roles we’re trying to see,” Taylor said. “We’re throwing him in all different positions just to see what he’s comfortable with, what he needs to work on as we move forward, give him plans moving further into summer coming back for training camp.
“But he’s been really receptive to everything. He’s shown an ability to grasp a lot of different things and show that he’s capable of doing things.”
–Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
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