Travis Etienne looks like one of the winners of the June minicamps. Heading into training camp, it’s clear he’s the favorite to be the most productive of the Jacksonville running backs. He’s more of a No. 1 running back rather than a sleeper who has any chance of making it into the later rounds.
Etienne missed all of his rookie season with his a Lisfranc foot injury, but he looks 100 percent healthy now. He was operating with no restrictions at their just-completed team workouts. That included him lining up not only as a running back but splitting out wide as a receiver and even fielding punts. He’s going to have a significant role.
A few months back, you might have seen somebody selecting James Robinson before Etienne in some drafts, but that’s not happening now. Robinson is trying to come back from a torn Achilles, and if and when he’ll get back to something close to 100 percent. In a post minicamp wrap-up put together by The Florida Times-Union, beat writer John Reid in one answer says it’s unlikely Robinson will be ready for the start of training camp but in another says it’s unclear if Robinson will be ready for the start of camp. Those seem like overly optimistic answers to me (I wouldn’t be surprised if Robinson opens the year on the PUP list and doesn’t get back to anything close to 100 percent in the 2022 season).
The Jaguars selected Snoop Conner in the fifth round, and the Reid article confirms that he could be a factor in this backfield. He’s a bigger, more physical runner. He could be their main goal-line runner (though this isn’t likely to be a team that’s scoring many 1- and 2-yard touchdowns).
With this backfield, keep in mind that Doug Pederson is coaching. When he was with the Eagles, they rotated their backs. In his five seasons there, no running back ever ran for 900 yards. And only one ranked higher than 23rd in total production among running backs for a season (using PPR scoring).
For now, Etienne to me looks like a possibility about 20 running backs into a draft. He’s a good pass catcher, and that will help him along in PPR formats. Conner and Robinson, I think, look like late-round flyer type guys (I don’t expect to wind up with either in the leagues I’m in).
| DOUG PEDERSON'S RUNNING BACKS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Run | Rec | Total | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2019 | Miles Sanders | 818 | 509 | 1,327 | 6 | 220.7 | 15 |
| 2020 | Miles Sanders | 867 | 197 | 1,064 | 6 | 174.4 | 23 |
| 2016 | Darren Sproles | 438 | 427 | 865 | 4 | 162.5 | 24 |
| 2016 | Ryan Mathews | 661 | 115 | 776 | 9 | 148.6 | 30 |
| 2018 | Wendell Smallwood | 364 | 230 | 594 | 5 | 119.4 | 42 |
| 2019 | Jordan Howard | 525 | 69 | 594 | 7 | 111.4 | 44 |
| 2017 | LeGarrette Blount | 766 | 50 | 816 | 3 | 109.6 | 45 |
| 2019 | Boston Scott | 245 | 204 | 449 | 5 | 98.9 | 49 |
| 2020 | Boston Scott | 374 | 212 | 586 | 2 | 95.6 | 51 |
| 2017 | Corey Clement | 321 | 123 | 444 | 6 | 92.4 | 51 |
| 2018 | Josh Adams | 511 | 58 | 569 | 3 | 83.9 | 61 |
| 2018 | Corey Clement | 259 | 192 | 451 | 2 | 81.1 | 62 |
| 2018 | Darren Sproles | 120 | 160 | 280 | 3 | 61.0 | 76 |
| 2016 | Wendell Smallwood | 312 | 55 | 367 | 2 | 54.7 | 72 |
| 2017 | Wendell Smallwood | 174 | 103 | 277 | 1 | 46.7 | 80 |
| 2018 | Jay Ajayi | 184 | 20 | 204 | 3 | 45.4 | 83 |
| 2016 | Kenjon Barner | 129 | 42 | 171 | 2 | 34.1 | 89 |
| 2017 | Kenjon Barner | 57 | 56 | 113 | 1 | 22.3 | 96 |
| 2020 | Corey Clement | 75 | 25 | 100 | 1 | 21.0 | 106 |
| 2017 | Darren Sproles | 61 | 73 | 134 | 0 | 20.4 | 101 |
| 2019 | Darren Sproles | 66 | 24 | 90 | 0 | 17.0 | 103 |
| 2016 | Byron Marshall | 64 | 10 | 74 | 0 | 10.4 | 124 |
| 2016 | Terrell Watson | 28 | 5 | 33 | 1 | 10.3 | 126 |
| 2019 | Jay Ajayi | 30 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 3.0 | 135 |
| 2020 | Jason Huntley | 19 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 2.9 | 146 |
—Ian Allan