A few days after Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor said Travis Etienne Jr hasn’t shown any signs he can’t handle his league-leading workload and the team will “continue to give the ball to our best players at all times,” head coach Doug Pederson delivered a different message Friday.
“Travis is a tough kid, we’ve seen that over the course of last year for the start of this year,” Pederson said. “We’ve got to be mindful that we’re not over working him, we’ve got to get Tank [Bigsby] and D’Ernest [Johnson] and if JaMycal [Hasty] is up, we’ve got to get those guys involved in the offense and get them some more touches.
“Right now, especially on third down, we like [Etienne] on third down, not only from a protection standpoint, but the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. We just got to keep the other guys coming. It’s not that we don’t have confidence in them, but we just feel like [Etienne] has the hot hand and we continue to keep him going. We’re definitely mindful of the wear-and-tear on his body as we go.”
Etienne, 24, has an NFL-most 151 touches (127 carries and 24 receptions) through the Jaguars’ first seven games. That’s 18 more than the 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey and 19 more than Raiders’ Josh Jacobs who haven’t yet played in Week 7.
In Week 1, the Jaguars gave Bigsby seven carries and threw him the ball once. The rookie hasn’t had more than four touches in any of the Jaguars’ six games since. Johnson has only 10 touches this season and Hasty is still at zero.
Etienne has made the most of his increased workload, recording seven touchdowns in as many games, including six in the last three weeks.
