Jaguars HC warns teams not to sleep on an improved Travis Etienne
The Jacksonville Jaguars are the consensus favorites to win the AFC South in 2023, and quarterback Trevor Lawrence is a dark horse MVP candidate in the eyes of many media pundits.
And with all the accolades Lawrence is sure to earn this year, head coach Doug Pederson believes many are sleeping on running back Travis Etienne, who he says has NFL leading rusher potential.
“He's really embraced [gaining speed through the hole] this training camp,” Pederson told reporters on Wednesday. “That, to me, is the next step for him and that 11-12-13, now the yards start creeping up, and maybe he's pushing 1,600 to 1,700 yards as a rusher."
After missing his rookie season with a foot injury, Etienne had a breakout 2022. He rushed for 1,125 yards and five touchdowns while adding 35 receptions for 316 yards as the Jags went 9-8, winning their first division title and making their first playoff appearance since 2017.
He ranked fourth in the league with five 100-yard games, and his 5.1 yards per carry was tied for third-best among the 15 RBs to rush for over 1,00 yards last year. Etienne also joined Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew as the only three backs in Jaguars history to average five or more yards per carry for an entire season.
Though Etienne piled up the rushing yards, Pederson disclosed offseason film sessions revealed the one area he thinks the former first-rounder can improve: attacking running holes faster and generating more explosive plays.
Although Etienne was tied for the league lead with four runs of 40 or more yards last but he barely cracked the top 10 when it came to runs of 10 or more yards (30). He also spent an average of 2.76 seconds behind the line of scrimmage, per NextGen Stats.
“One of the things that we noticed was just him attacking the hole downhill," Pederson added. “Shoulders squared, attack the line of scrimmage, finding that crease where a lot of times you'll see him try to bounce. We were able to show him and really emphasize shoulders-squared, anticipating where the hole could be, and just trusting that. He's done an outstanding job. He's bought into that. He sees it, we've been able to show it to him. He's working on that in training camp right now."
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