The Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback and running back combination in 2021 may look very familiar to Clemson Tigers fans. After the Jaguars drafted QB Trevor Lawrence with the number one overall pick on Thursday, the team followed that up by taking Clemson RB Travis Etienne with the 25th overall pick.
The two-time ACC player of the year is happy to be in Jacksonville and did not want to be separated from his college quarterback.
“I knew Trevor was coming here,” Etienne said at his introductory press conference on Friday. “You’d be crazy not to want to play with Trevor Lawrence. I definitely wanted to be with Trevor. I feel as if, like I said earlier, it brings me that sense of normalcy being with him these past three years. I feel like I can’t wait to do great things here.”
According to Etienne, he and Lawrence, who played together for three seasons at Clemson, have developed excellent chemistry.
“We built a lot of chemistry, especially these past two years,” Etienne said. “His freshman year, I wasn’t that much of a receiving threat. His sophomore and junior years, we stayed out after practice and kept working, kept working, kept working. You just see it kind of pays off. You see it on the field now, he’s throwing me darts, things he probably would’ve thrown to me his freshman year, now he has the confidence in me and trust in me, so I’m grateful.”
In four seasons at Clemson, Etienne ran for 4952 yards and 70 rushing touchdowns, and according to Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer, Etienne has big-play potential every time he has the ball.
“I saw the violence that he plays with and the speed — speed wins,” Meyer said, “We were a team that really struggled with big-play hits last year and, especially in the NFL, but the opportunity to sustain 10-, 12-, 13-play drives, the percentages say that doesn’t happen, so we need some hits, and we didn’t have it. Travis has got that gift. He’s got that gift of if that guy touches the ball, there’s a chance it’s going, and that’s the biggest thing I looked at.”
While Jacksonville has James Robinson, who rushed for over one thousand yards last season, Etienne, on the surface, appears to be the guy for this team going forward. Robinson is not Meyer’s guy; Etienne is, so we’ll see how that situation plays out.
