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Michael DiRocco
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Working again Travis Etienne Jr. is aware of this may very well be his final season with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He’s presently enjoying on the fifth-year possibility of his rookie contract for the franchise that drafted him twenty fifth general in 2021.
However placing any time into eager about that will be a waste, he stated. He’d quite concentrate on bouncing again from a disappointing 2024 and proving he is able to being a dependable playmaker once more.
“I do know I am an awesome participant. Everybody is aware of I am an awesome participant and it’s simply actually simply relying in your work,” Etienne stated because the Jaguars wrapped up their three-day obligatory minicamp. “I really feel just like the work that I am placing on this offseason goes to solely propel me all through the season irrespective of the place I am at. And I really feel like for me, how I am approaching it, if I do all the pieces I can earlier than the season, the season’s going to handle itself.
After shedding his rookie season to a Lisfranc harm, Etienne rushed for two,133 yards and 16 touchdowns and caught 93 passes for 792 yards and one landing in 2022-23. Final season his manufacturing dipped considerably — 558 and two speeding touchdowns and 39 catches for 254 yards — as second-year participant Tank Bigsby turned the workforce’s high again (766 yards and 7 TDs).
A part of Etienne’s decline may very well be attributed to the best way he was used over the previous two seasons in former head coach Doug Pederson’s offense. In 2022, 25.4% of his carries got here exterior the tackles and he averaged 8.3 yards per rush. These numbers dipped in 2023 (23.2%, 3.7 yards per carry) and 2024 (21.3%, 3.0 yards per carry).
Etienne is at his greatest when he is on the sting and in house, and he likes that new head coach Liam Coen’s offense appeared to place him in these spots loads throughout the spring.
“He is been getting me loads in house,” Etienne stated. “I really like me one-on-one with anyone and simply with the ability to make that first man miss and with the ability to get the additional yards. I really feel like Liam has an awesome knack for getting the gamers the ball. It is extra so gamers than performs with Liam and he has an awesome really feel for the sport.”
Coen preferred what he noticed from Etienne within the spring, particularly his consistency.
“Day by day, all the pieces we’ve requested him to do he has completed at a superb click on for us,” Coen stated. “The power within the display screen recreation, handy him jet sweeps, his imaginative and prescient to date within the run recreation’s been good. He is completed all the pieces we have requested him to do and extra.”
That is a superb signal as a result of along with Bigsby, the Jaguars drafted two working backs: Bhayshul Tuten (who’s recognized for his pace) within the fourth spherical and LeQuint Allen Jr. within the seventh.
“I really feel like we did not get right here [the NFL] by not welcoming competitors,” Etienne stated. “This isn’t my first time I have been in a room with a bunch of runners. After I obtained right here it was competitors. There’s competitors wherever you go. That is simply the best way of the NFL. If you do not have a contest, you are not a very nice workforce.”
Etienne is not the one Jaguars participant who has a lot to show in 2025. Listed below are 4 others who, for one motive or one other, are below strain to lift their degree of play:
Lawrence is not in peril of going anyplace — he signed a five-year, $275 million extension with $200 million assured final June — however he has but to play at a excessive degree over a full season and has battled six separate accidents over the previous two season, together with two concussions in an 11-month span.
Making issues harder is that he is studying his third offense for the reason that Jaguars drafted him first general in 2021.
Lawrence has been chasing the success he had between a 17-game stretch from Week 9 in 2022 to Week 8 in 2023 the place he accomplished 69% of his passes (second-best in that stretch to Justin Herbert‘s 69.5%) for 4,208 yards and 24 touchdowns with six interceptions (third-lowest amongst QBs who began 10 or extra video games). The Jaguars went 13-4 in that stretch.
That is a fairly good stretch, however the expectations for the participant as soon as tabbed a generational prospect are greater, particularly in the case of landing passes and turnovers. Lawrence has not thrown greater than 25 in a season (2022) and he leads the NFL in turnovers (68) since he entered the league regardless of enjoying seven fewer video games than Josh Allen (67 turnovers), who’s the one different participant with 60-plus turnovers.
There’s optimism that Coen would be the coach to lastly get a giant season out of Lawrence, particularly after Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield threw a career-high 41 TD passes and a career-high 4,500 yards in 2024 in his lone season with Coen as his offensive coordinator.
Coen has utterly re-worked Lawrence’s footwork, which he stated is important to Lawrence with the ability to function the offense successfully.
Harrison was a touch higher participant in his second season (83.1% move block win charge, sixtieth amongst tackles; 71.7% run block win charge, 51st amongst tackles) than he was as a rookie (80.2% move block win charge, 67th amongst tackles; 69.4% run block win charge, 61st amongst tackles). However the Jaguars anticipated extra progress out of the twenty seventh general decide within the 2023 draft.
He did not make massive strides within the spring, both. He missed one of many OTAs open to the media due to an sickness and when he was wholesome and collaborating within the OTAs and minicamp open to the media he rotated with free-agent signee Chuma Edoga with the starters.
When requested about Harrison, Coen did reward his footwork, athleticism, move safety on the sting, and his understanding of the offense. Nevertheless, he additionally stated this: “When Anton desires to go, he can go, [it’s] simply persistently doing it on a day-in, day-out foundation.”
That was a delicate message to Harrison to come back into coaching camp with a bit extra depth. This might be Harrison’s third season and the Jaguars must determine whether or not to select up his fifth-year possibility subsequent spring. A marked enchancment would make that call simpler. One other season with little to none might put proper deal with within the higher a part of the Jaguars’ wants listing.
On his second day on the job, GM James Gladstone, whereas talking on the mix, emphasised the significance of enhancing the inside of the offensive line to permit Lawrence to have extra confidence in stepping right into a throw.
He known as that “setting the dish” and stated when that occurs “you are going to really feel a number of success come off that.”
The Jaguars signed new starters at middle in Robert Hainsey and proper guard Patrick Mekari to exchange the retired Mitch Morse and Brandon Scherff, respectively. And regardless that Cleveland, who signed a three-year extension price $24 million in March 2024 below former GM Trent Baalke, ranked eighth amongst guards in run block win charge (74.5%) and twenty seventh amongst guards in move block win charge (92.7%) final season, the Jaguars nonetheless drafted Wyatt Milum out of West Virginia within the third spherical.
Milum began 43 video games at left deal with for the Mountaineers and did not permit a sack in his ultimate two seasons, however he projected as a guard within the NFL and the Jaguars are having him compete with Cleveland at left guard to be the starter.
Cleveland actually has the early edge however the truth that the Jaguars need him pushed by somebody who didn’t play inside in faculty ought to put him on discover.
The Jaguars drafted Jones within the third spherical of the 2024 draft and he emerged late within the season as the highest nickel again. The expectation because the season concluded was that he would compete to be a starter on the surface reverse Tyson Campbell in 2025.
Then Pederson obtained fired, Coen obtained employed and he employed Anthony Campanile as his defensive coordinator. The Jaguars traded as much as draft receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter and instantly stated he would play each methods as he did at Colorado.
It obtained worse for Jones when Campanile revealed his protection is heavy on zone protection, which is one thing Jones stated he by no means performed in highschool or faculty. Montaric Brown, who began 10 video games exterior final season, is sweet in zone protection and labored with the starters all through the spring.
“[Brown] likes to compete,” Campanile stated. “Whether or not it is on the road of scrimmage, he is not afraid to problem individuals, he’ll problem guys on the high of the route and attempt to play with method. However no matter he is obtained to do to pressure and make the play, he is been doing that, which is superior. That is what we have been preaching, and he is been doing it daily.”
Jones has needed to take a crash course in zone protection and Campanile stated he likes the additional work that Jones put in over the spring. Jones might be given an opportunity to compete for enjoying time, each exterior and at nickel, however the Jaguars signed nickel again Jourdan Lewis in free company so it is unlikely Jones beats him out.
It might be laborious for Jones to search out a lot enjoying time in 2025.
