RB: Travis Etienne Jr. - JAX

Travis Etienne was one of the hottest running backs in all of football to start 2023. He finished as a top-12 running back six times in the first eight weeks of the season, and heading into the bye, he looked poised for a huge second half. But unfortunately, from Week 10 on, Travis Etienne was only an RB1 twice, and he only finished as an RB2 three times. So, Travis Etienne unfortunately just didn't give you a whole lot of upside down the stretch and in the playoffs.

Down the stretch, I did see some comments about Travis Etienne's inefficiency and the fact that he was averaging under four yards per carry. I agree that is not a great stat. The better running backs in the NFL are going to be averaging well over that. But I don't think it was all on Travis Etienne. He still led all running backs last season in avoided tackles, and he was tied for sixth in receptions as well. So, there were different things helping continue to keep his floor at a pretty decent level, even though a lot of that ceiling had been lost in the second half of the season.

The offensive line had their struggles, the offense as a whole was very inconsistent, and Trevor Lawrence was a big reason behind that. Now they've retooled their offense a little bit this season. They've drafted Brian Thomas, added Gabe Davis, and still have Evan Engram and, of course, Christian Kirk. With Travis Etienne in the backfield and really being the main guy, he should be once again inside the top-12 conversation of all running backs.

One thing to keep in mind is that Doug Pederson has made it known that he wants to give Travis Etienne a bit of a lighter workload this season, and that's okay. Travis Etienne was extremely efficient a couple of years ago, and last year he did lose a little bit of that. So, you know what? If you take a few carries away, with how good he is in the passing game and with how many avoided tackles he had last season, I'm okay with his ceiling being a little bit more in the low RB1 range this season but his floor being really nice inside that top 24.