I'm very interested in Jacksonville's fourth-round running back, Bhayshul Tuten. He's a talented guy, and he's landed with a team that sounds open to dramatically shaping its running back room.
With Tuten himself, he had a couple of strong years at Virginia Tech. In 2023 (in a committee), he ran for 863 yards and 10 TDs while also catching 27 passes and 2 more scores. Last year he ran for 1,159 yards (6.3 per attempt) and 15 scores, while also catching 23 passes.
Moreover, he showed up at the combine and ran the fastest 40 among running backs (4.32), and put up the best vertical (40.5) for the position. I knew all this, but didn't take him at 2.04 in my rookie draft last week. Kind of regretting it right now.
Anyway, he was selected by the Jaguars early in the fourth round. Jacksonville has Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby, but a report last week has them not too thrilled with Etienne (and he's in a contract year anyway). Bigsby had a solid year in some respects (766 yards and 7 TDs) but fumbled 4 times, so the team might not be sold on him either.
Looking at last year's first half versus second half numbers, Jacksonville wanting to remake its running game makes a ton of sense.
Last season, Jacksonville averaged 25 fewer rushing yards per game in the second half of the season compared to the first. That was the 5th-biggest decline among the league's 32 teams. They also declined from 4.8 yards per rushing attempt to just 3.5. That was the biggest first-half to second-half decline (table sorted by that latter number).
| TEAM RUSHING, 1ST HALF VS. 2ND HALF | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Yds(1) | Avg(1) | Yds(2) | Avg(2) | Yds(+/-) | Avg(+/-) |
| NY Jets | 88 | 4.0 | 97 | 4.7 | 8.8 | .69 |
| Tampa Bay | 127 | 5.1 | 174 | 5.4 | 47.1 | .36 |
| Carolina | 101 | 4.4 | 121 | 4.8 | 19.4 | .35 |
| Seattle | 91 | 4.1 | 101 | 4.4 | 9.5 | .34 |
| Buffalo | 119 | 4.4 | 145 | 4.7 | 25.6 | .33 |
| LA Rams | 97 | 3.8 | 110 | 4.1 | 12.7 | .31 |
| Dallas | 82 | 3.8 | 117 | 4.1 | 34.6 | .31 |
| Kansas City | 122 | 3.9 | 90 | 4.1 | -32.3 | .25 |
| Cleveland | 91 | 4.0 | 99 | 4.2 | 7.6 | .20 |
| Las Vegas | 77 | 3.5 | 83 | 3.7 | 6.2 | .20 |
| Cincinnati | 94 | 4.1 | 91 | 4.2 | -3.5 | .14 |
| Indianapolis | 121 | 4.6 | 155 | 4.7 | 33.5 | .10 |
| LA Chargers | 115 | 4.0 | 107 | 4.1 | -7.2 | .06 |
| Philadelphia | 175 | 4.9 | 183 | 4.9 | 8.6 | .04 |
| New Orleans | 125 | 4.4 | 103 | 4.4 | -22.1 | .03 |
| Chicago | 113 | 4.0 | 93 | 4.0 | -19.8 | .01 |
| Atlanta | 118 | 4.5 | 144 | 4.5 | 25.7 | -.03 |
| New England | 111 | 4.4 | 121 | 4.4 | 10.3 | -.05 |
| Arizona | 150 | 5.3 | 138 | 5.3 | -11.7 | -.07 |
| Houston | 126 | 4.4 | 96 | 4.3 | -30.1 | -.11 |
| Washington | 164 | 5.0 | 143 | 4.9 | -20.9 | -.12 |
| Pittsburgh | 138 | 4.2 | 118 | 4.0 | -20.2 | -.18 |
| Baltimore | 192 | 5.9 | 183 | 5.6 | -9.1 | -.25 |
| Minnesota | 114 | 4.2 | 105 | 3.9 | -9.5 | -.28 |
| NY Giants | 115 | 4.3 | 94 | 4.0 | -20.8 | -.30 |
| Green Bay | 155 | 5.0 | 138 | 4.5 | -16.9 | -.49 |
| Detroit | 153 | 4.9 | 141 | 4.4 | -11.8 | -.49 |
| Tennessee | 126 | 4.4 | 94 | 3.8 | -31.2 | -.58 |
| Denver | 121 | 4.4 | 102 | 3.8 | -19.6 | -.65 |
| Miami | 134 | 4.4 | 80 | 3.5 | -53.4 | -.84 |
| San Francisco | 159 | 5.1 | 99 | 4.3 | -60.0 | -.87 |
| Jacksonville | 113 | 4.8 | 89 | 3.5 | -24.9 | -1.35 |
Readers may notice that the team at the top or 2nd from the top in those two categories is Tampa Bay. Jacksonville's new head coach, Liam Coen, was the offensive coordinator there, so he's well aware of the benefits of a strong running game.
Maybe Tuten will be a big part of Jacksonville turning things around this year.
--Andy Richardson