Travis Etienne is mostly a forgotten Fantasy Football asset by managers in the early parts of the summer draft season. He routinely falls deep into the middle rounds of Fantasy drafts after coming off the board as early as Round 2 just two seasons ago. The expectation is that Etienne, who is entering his final season under contract with the Jaguars, will fall out of favor with a new coaching staff led by Liam Coen. But not so fast. Etienne has made the opposite impression early on during spring Jaguars OTAs. Coen has grown excited about what Etienne has to offer and this could lead to a renewed sense of optimism around his 2025 Fantasy season.
“He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do at a good clique for us,” Coen said during Jaguars OTAs. “The ability in the screen game, to hand him jet sweeps, and his vision in the run game so far. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do and more. There has been a consistency. He can shine in ways in space — it’s really hard to see a runner in this setting — are they going to get the hard physical tough yards — that’s hard to grade at this moment. But he’s done a great job. I don’t understand some of the stuff (doubts) I’ve seen out there — that’s absolutely inaccurate.”
The expectation has been that with a new coaching staff, Etienne would falter, but what if the framing has been wrong the entire time? On the flip side, Coen maximized his running backs in 2024 while working with the Buccaneers. One of the ways he maximized his backs was by using them in space — on jet sweeps, screens, and in different power/gap blocking schemes that maximize his skill set. Etienne entered the NFL with one of the highest forced missed tackle rates in college football history at Clemson. That carried over to his early career in Jacksonville. Now, Coen will try to find that again in his scheme.
Etienne will likely continue to fall in Fantasy drafts regardless of the preseason hype due to his disappointing 2024 season. Any manager who drafted him last year still feels the pain. Etienne averaged just 8.7 PPR points per game, which was easily a career-low, and a significant drop-off from his 2023 production (16.1 PPR points). Volume was a key factor in his drop-off. Tank Bigsby took a sizable chunk of the workload and he returns for the 2025 season. Etienne finished with just 150 carries for 558 yards and two touchdowns and 39 receptions for 254 yards on 52 targets. By comparison, he had 267 carries for 1,008 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2023 with 58 catches for 476 yards and a touchdown on 73 targets.
Another factor that clouds Etienne’s outlook is the potential emergence of rookie running back Bhayshul Tuten. The Jaguars used a mid-round draft pick in the 2025 NFL Draft on Tuten who ran a 4.32 40-yard dash at the 2025 NFL Combine and will add a speed element to the offense beyond even what Etienne can offer. However, Tuten also fumbled 11 times in his last two seasons in college and lost nine of those. This can be a greater impediment to Tuten seeing the field a lot as a rookie than many Fantasy managers are currently considering.
Ultimately, Etienne is entering a contract season and is likely to make the most of every opportunity the Jaguars afford him. If he can return to the level of play he put on tape in 2022 and 2023, he will be a massive value draft pick for Fantasy managers in the middle rounds with upside for an even greater season if the Jaguars offense can take a jump in points scored and total offense under Coen’s play calling and play design.
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Author: Dan Schneier
June 3, 2025 | 12:40 pm
