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Liam Coen said it in April, months before the Jacksonville Jaguars played a game. Travis Etienne Jr. had left for New Orleans, the team had added only Chris Rodriguez Jr. to the backfield, and the head coach was talking about his ground game at the league meetings.
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“I gotta believe we can run the ball effectively next year with the guys we have,” Coen said, according to the team’s website. Three games in, Jacksonville ranks No. 1 in the NFL in rushing success rate after finishing 19th in 2025. That comes from The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue, who listed the Jaguars among the teams whose plans are working in her NFL Team Utility Tiers.
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The moves were quiet. Jacksonville moved Bhayshul Tuten into the starting job, then drafted tight end Nate Boerkircher in the second round, offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon in the third and tight end Tanner Koziol in the fifth, per the team’s draft list. Rodrigue wrote that Coen now leans on multiple tight ends, uses motion to change gaps and angles, and disguises runs with where he lines up his backs.
Tuten has 43 carries for 204 yards and two touchdowns, per Pro Football Reference. PFF gives him an 83.8 overall grade, fourth among 46 qualified halfbacks, and credits him with 15 missed tackles forced.
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“Tuten ran his tail off; he ran hard,” Coen said after the opener, according to ESPN Gainesville. “I thought he ran through arm tackles a ton.”
The raw totals are modest, with 358 yards on 86 carries as a team. Success rate measures how often a run keeps the offense on schedule, and it showed against New England, when the Jaguars ran 23 times for 110 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-6 win. Trevor Lawrence has thrown for 585 yards and seven touchdown passes, and the defense is allowing a league-low 12.0 points per game. Sunday at Cincinnati is a harder test. Rodrigue noted the Bengals, with Dexter Lawrence in the middle, did not allow a run longer than 10 yards by a running back in their first two games.
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This story was originally published October 3, 2026 at 6:31 AM.