Urban Meyer faced some criticism when he announced that Travis Etienne would spend his first rookie mincamp working out exclusively at receiver
The Jaguars head coach recently provided an update on the former Clemson running back’s progress saying the team plans to use Etienne in a number of ways, and the explosiveness he brings to the table is something the Jacksonville offense sorely lacked in last season.
“I saw flashes of what I remember seeing in college here, the last week and a half,” Meyer said. “The Jaguars, when you look at statistically, big plays were very hard to find last year. And this guy’s a big play written all over it. He’s a space player. So, ideally, we’re going to be one of those multiple offenses that has spread elements as well as the Y, Y or the two tights. I think that’s going to be hard to defend, if you do both, and he is a space player… and you could see that the last few practices.”
During his four year career at Clemson, Etienne more than proved he is capable of making plays in the passing game. During both his junior and senior seasons, the running back was one of Trevor Lawrence’s primary weapons in the Tigers passing attack.
However, it was really during his final season in which he made the biggest impact in the passing game. when he reeled in 48 catches for 588 yards, both of which are single season records for a running back at the school.
“It was very important, especially for the way the position is headed,” Etienne said at an introductory press conference with the Jaguars, when he was asked about his 2020 season’s versatile production. “For running backs, an every-down back, three-down back, be out there on third down, so you can get the little dump offs that turn to 10-, 20-yard gains. And now, I feel as if my transition, it really was amazing to just have (quarterback Trevor Lawrence). He’s here again, so we kind of worked on that every day after practice, got on the JUGGS machine. We just really owned it. We wanted to be better. So we got in there and just worked after practice and just it happened.”
