Ahead of the 2025 season, there was trade rumors surrounding Jacksonville Jaguars running back Travis Etienne. But during OTAs, first-year Jaguars head coach Liam Coen silenced the speculation that Jacksonville might trade the former Clemson star away to another team.

“He’s done a great job,” Coen said of Etienne back in June. “I don’t really understand some of the stuff I’ve kind of seen out there. That’s absolutely inaccurate.”

“Every day, everything we’ve asked him to do, he’s done at a good clip for us,” Coen added. “I mean, the ability in the screen game, to hand him jet sweeps. His vision, so far, in the run game has been good. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do, and more. There’s been a consistency.”

Coen and the Jaguars are surely glad they didn’t let Etienne go anywhere else.

Etienne, a fifth-year pro, is having the best year of his pro career to date — and doing it for a Jaguars team that currently sits atop the AFC South standings with a 9-4 record.

Entering Week 15, Etienne ranks 10th in the NFL with 917 rushing yards, and he’s on pace to surpass his career high in rushing yards (1,125 in 2022). He is also 16th in the league in yards from scrimmage with 1,098 and is averaging 84.5 scrimmage yards per game. He has accounted for nine total touchdowns (seven rushing, two receiving), just three shy of his career high (12 total touchdowns in 2023).

“He’s been huge for us, right?” Coen said this week. “You know, when he gets going for us, he’s definitely a really impactful player … The more we can get him going, the better.”

Etienne is coming off a two-touchdown performance in Jacksonville’s 36-19, Week 14 victory over the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday, when he ran for 74 yards on 20 carries.

The 5-foot-10, 215-pounder got the scoring started with a 3-yard touchdown run early in the first quarter and added a 28-yard rushing touchdown early in the second quarter.

“The first touchdown was a really good run because you’re in goal line and somebody is going to be free, and so he ends up doing a great job of just hitting it and running through contact and falling forward into the end zone,” Coen said. “And then you see on his second one where he’s now a little bit behind a few blockers, but it’s him in space being able to go make somebody miss and score, as we’ve seen a few times this season.”

Etienne is certainly enjoying a bounce-back 2025 season. Last season, he finished with 558 yards and two touchdowns on 150 carries, averaging 3.7 yards per rush. After back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons in 2022 and ‘23, his production fell off last season due in part to the fact he was hampered by injuries, as well as the emergence of former Jaguars running back Tank Bigsby, who has since been traded away to the Philadelphia Eagles.

After missing his entire 2021 rookie campaign due to a season-ending Lisfranc injury he suffered in that preseason, Etienne has rushed for 3,608 yards and 25 touchdowns on 838 carries in his NFL career to date, while also catching 158 passes for 1,227 yards and three more scores.

Etienne is now in the final year of his rookie contract, playing on his fifth-year option after being selected by the Jags with the 25th overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft, and he is slated to become a free agent following this season.

Not only has he been highly productive on the field, but he’s been a valuable leader for his team as well.

“[Etienne] on offense is a guy that got a number of votes to be a captain this year and has let ultimately his play speak for itself and brings it every day that he comes to work,” Coen said.

–Photo courtesy of Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images