Why Jaguars' Ground Game Must Improve

The Jacksonville Jaguars have talented running backs, but their ground game struggled this past season. Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby give the Jaguars a formidable running back duo. However, injuries and inconsistency along the offensive line hampered the backs for much of the season.

At one point during this past season, the Jaguars had one of the top ground games in the National Football League in total yards. Etienne and Bigsby had begun the season as arguably the top rushing duo in the league. Etienne suffered an injury a quarter of the way through the season.

Things were never the same for the Jaguars. Although Bigsby performed well in Etienne's brief absence, the Jaguars traded offensive lineman Cam Robinson. The veteran was one of the Jaguars' top offensive linemen but was set to enter free agency soon.

The Jaguars' lack of a ground game was just one of the many things that factored into the offense's struggles this past season. Trevor Lawrence knows it is critical to get the ground game going. The unit finished with the seventh-fewest rushing yards in the league this past season.

“Definitely. 100 percent. I think it’s not only just trying to run the ball, it's what's the plan? I think everyone tries to run the ball. I think everybody knows in football that's important. I mean, if you know football at all, you know that's important," Lawrence said.

"So, I think everybody knows that, but just from the little that we've gotten into, the plan to run the ball well, effectively, efficiently, the way we can adapt throughout games throughout the season, figuring out what we're good at naturally, what we're going to be better at certain things than we are at others."

"Those things, how you determine what the defense is going to do, how you see what they're doing to get yourself in the best play. There's just so much stuff that I'm excited to learn and get into that is kind of new for me," Lawrence said.

"I think, right now for us, it's going to be more to learn, it's going to be more work put in for all the guys of going to learn the system because it's a tough system to learn, but it's going to help us play faster, it's going to help us be in the right play more than we're not. It's going to set us up for success, but you’ve got to put the time in and study.”