Bhayshul Tuten said the Jaguars are ready to handle more in the run game now that Travis Etienne Jr. is no longer taking those carries, and the running back room has already started showing how it plans to spread the load. Tuten and Rodriguez are listed as co-starters, but the job inside this backfield is starting to look less like a single lead role and more like a shared assignment.
Tuten spoke to the media after Day 15 of 2026 Training Camp practice on Tuesday, and that is why his comments are landing now. The Jaguars are in the middle of building their offense for the season ahead, and the running back group is one of the clearest places where the transition is showing up. Tuten said the team is getting a lot of reps that Etienne was taking last year, and that the backs are all ready and available to step up.
Grant Udinski put the structure plainly. He said the Jaguars’ running backs have kind of been by committee in the run game, and that the same idea applies in the pass game, whether it is third down, two minutes or second and long. That means the workload is not just about who takes the handoff. It also covers who protects, who stays on the field late in drives and who can handle the less glamorous parts of the job when the play calls demand it.
That is where the backfield gets interesting. Udinski said the room has a unique quality because the players are willing to handle different roles, and he singled out Tuten as really explosive with great vision inside and the speed to hit home-run runs. He also said Tuten has gotten a lot better in protection this offseason, which matters because pass protection often decides who can stay on the field when the offense needs trust more than flash.
The same day, Tuten had good things to say about Rodriguez, calling his offseason addition amazing. Tuten said Rodriguez came in, was welcomed with open arms and is hitting the ground running while learning as much as he can. In practice terms, that kind of introduction usually points to a room where roles are still being sorted, even if the preseason depth chart already lists both backs as co-starters.
The friction is simple: the Jaguars are talking about balance, but they are also talking about more work. Etienne’s departure created more touches to go around, and the committee model only works if each back can absorb a defined slice of the offense. What is still not clear is how the Jaguars will divide the carries from the pass-blocking snaps when the games start to count.
The next checkpoint comes on August 21, when the Jaguars host the Carolina Panthers for Week 2 of the 2026 preseason at EverBank Stadium. By then, the backfield should tell a better story than camp chatter does now, because the real question is not whether the Jaguars have enough runners. It is which of them can own the parts of the offense that matter most when the committee starts paying bills.
