What to do with Jaguars RBs with Travis Etienne questionable in Week 7
The Jaguars added running back Travis Etienne to their injury report. Blaine Grisak breaks down his questionable designation and what it means for Tank Bigsby and fantasy football managers.
Game day update: Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson told NFL Network reporter Steve Wyche that Etienne will NOT play in Week 7.
The Jacksonville Jaguars will be playing for their season on Sunday in London when they take on the New England Patriots. The Jaguars fell to the Chicago Bears in London last week, but with just one win on the season, they’ll hope to get a win against a Patriots team that has also been struggling.
Heading into an important game on Sunday, the Jaguars will be unsure if they’ll have running back Travis Etienne available. Etienne has had a disappointing 2024 and left early in last week’s game with a hamstring injury.
Travis Etienne injury status
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the Jaguars are listing running back Travis Etienne as questionable to play in Week 7. Etienne has been dealing with injuries all season. Prior to the Week 6 matchup with the Bears, he had a shoulder injury. Last week he injured in hamstring in the first half, playing just 11 snaps with -1 yard rushing. His status will certainly be up in the air against the Patriots and will be a game-time decision.
What Travis Etienne injury means for fantasy football and Tank Bigsby
At this point, Etienne has been one of the bigger fantasy busts of the 2024 season. Coming into the year, the Jaguars running back was considered a top-10 fantasy running back and was being drafted in the second round. However, he has been the RB32 in PPR leagues and has been just one piece of a Jaguars offense that has underperformed.
However, with Etienne struggling to find form and being injured, it has opened an opportunity for both Tank Bigsby and D’Ernest Johnson. Bigsby has taken advantage of his opportunity this season and has earned a timeshare in the Jaguars backfield. With that said, Bigbsy is limited as a fantasy option.
Bigsby played just 17 snaps last week and a lot of that was due to game script. The second-year player doesn’t provide a lot in the passing game. Therefore, if the score gets out of hand, he’s unlikely to see a lot of offensive snaps.
Unlike last week, the Jaguars should be able to keep things close or be in a winning position against the Patriots. That should allow them to have more of a run-heavy game-script which favors Bigsby. According to Fantasy Points Data, 65.9 percent of Tank Bigsby’s rush attempts have come on man/gap concepts this season which is the fifth-most. Meanwhile, the the Patriots have surrendered the third-most yards per carry and ninth-highest success rate to man/gap run schemes.
The Patriots defense has been dealing with injuries and have struggled because of that. Bigsby’s 6.5 yards after contact per attempt leads the NFL.
Despite this being a potentially exciting opportunity for Bigsby, it is important to remember his limitations and that this is still a time share. Bigsby has 27 passing down snaps all season while Johnson had 25 passing down snaps in Week 6 alone. Additionally, Johnson had a 62.1 percent routes share last week to Bigsby’s 6.9 percent.
Bigsby should get a lot of the early down work and carries in the red zone. However, Johnson is the running back that the Jaguars trust on passing downs. That limits Bigsby’s upside in PPR formats.
The Jaguars offense has disappointed in fantasy football this season and the running back position has been difficult to navigate. Still, this has the potential to be a good week for Bigsby given the matchup from a run defense standpoint and the fact that the game-script shouldn’t get out of hand. With players on bye, Bigbsy has RB2 upside in Week 7. In a desperate situation, Johnson may be worth a flex play in PPR formats, but he’s most likely a a player to stash to see what his role is moving forward.