The Jacksonville Jaguars entered the first week of the 2026 NFL season with questions at the running back position.
Travis Etienne had led the backfield in recent seasons, but he departed in free agency to sign a $52 million contract with the New Orleans Saints.
It’s not that there were no options. It was more a question of which of those options would win out.
By the time the dominant Week 1 win over the Cleveland Browns was done, though, it was in no doubt.
This RB room has an RB1, and then it has everyone else.
Good News for Bhayshul Tuten
Bhayshul Tuten appeared to have a decent chance at the RB1 job, but nothing was a given.
He was competing with Chris Rodriguez Jr. and potentially with LeQuint Allen, too.
On Sunday, there was no competition.
Tuten ran the ball 15 times for 66 yards.
The next closest on the workload chart was Rodriguez, who had six runs for 23 yards.
Ameer Abdullah, once the game was out of hand, ran four times for 32 yards.
The Jaguars didn’t use Allen much, as he entered the game battling an injury and got to chill out even though he was active because the game was such a blowout.
For what it’s worth, Tuten also caught his lone target for 22 yards. Rodriguez didn’t get a pass thrown his way.
The numbers on that front certainly seem to favor Tuten.
There’s One Catch
There’s one reason not to rush to the obvious conclusion here.
The first-half snap counts from the Jaguars’ game circulated on X (formerly Twitter), and it wasn’t as one-sided as you’d think.
Tuten received 16 snaps in the first half.
Rodriguez also got 16 snaps in the first half.
Jaguars 1st half RB snap count
Bhayshul Tuten 16
Chris Rodriguez Jr. 16
Ameer Abdullah 3
LeQuint Allen 1Out of 36 plays
— Nathan Jahnke (@FFNateJahnke) September 13, 2026
That suggests that when the game was still hanging at least a little in the balance, the Jaguars appreciated the chance to split their running backs pretty evenly.
The blowout nature of Sunday’s game — which was already obvious in the first half — can complicate situations like this in trying to get to the bottom of things.
But even as the snaps were even early, there’s something to be said for the touches, too.
The Jaguars kept giving Tuten the ball, and that isn’t by accident. They like him a lot.
That doesn’t mean Jacksonville can’t benefit from others playing in the backfield besides Tuten. But it’s hard to look at Sunday as anything other than an endorsement that Tuten is ready to step into a bigger role this season with Etienne having left town.
It’ll feel better to see the Jaguars do this a couple weeks in a row before totally committing to Tuten’s future hype for this season — but as things stand, he got off to a good start as the apparent lead back in the Jacksonville backfield.
Jaguars’ Bhayshul Tuten Role Made Clear in Week 1