Chris Rodriguez Jr.

The Jaguars have lost a running back in Travis Etienne, but they are adding back to the position in free agency. Jacksonville has agreed to a deal with former Commanders running back Chris Rodriguez, NFL insider Jordan Schultz reports. This is a two-year pact, according to ESPN’s Michael DiRocco. DiRocco’s colleague Jeremy Fowler adds that the contract has a base value of $10MM with $6.2MM fully guaranteed and a maximum value of $12MM.

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence had to say goodbye to his backfield mate of the past eight years, but the goodbyes seemingly began after an uncharacteristically poor 2024 campaign in which Etienne totaled only 558 rushing yards and two touchdowns despite starting 15 games. That performance likely resulted in the team opting to draft Bhayshul Tuten and LeQuint Allen in the fourth and seventh rounds last year, respectively.

There was a good amount of buzz around Tuten who looked to steal a decent share of carries as a rookie out of Virginia Tech. Ultimately, Etienne reclaimed backfield dominance, thanks in part to the timely trade of Tank Bigsby to the Eagles just after the Jaguars’ season opener. Etienne looked much closer to being on par with how he had performed in his first two years of NFL play, but he was never able to top the rushing total of his first season or the touchdown high of his sophomore campaign.

With Etienne gone, Tuten appears to be the heir apparent to RB1 duties in Jacksonville, but Rodriguez now enters the picture with experience in a crowded backfield. Rodriguez just finished off what was a bit of a comeback campaign in Washington. As a rookie sixth-round pick out of Kentucky, Rodriguez was limited as RB3 behind Brian Robinson and Antonio Gibson and ended the season on injured reserve with concussion symptoms. His rookie contract was scrapped when he failed to make the 53-man roster in Year 2 and cleared waivers to end up on the practice squad.

Rodriguez did find his way off the taxi squad late in the 2024 season and even delivered some strong performances as he averaged 4.9 yards per carry on limited playing time to close the year. He entered 2025 as the RB2 in a traffic-jammed running backs room that included Austin Ekeler, Jeremy McNichols, and rookie Jacory Croskey-Merritt. He earned the first two starts after Ekeler went down with a season-ending injury two games into the year, but Croskey-Merritt took the baton for five games after that. The hot hand swung back and forth between the two for the remainder of the season, and over the last few weeks of play, they ended up seeing a pretty similar number of touches.

Rodriguez ended the season with a career-high 500 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. While Duval’s running back’s room isn’t nearly as crowded as D.C.’s was, Rodriguez still finds himself in a good position to compete for RB1 or RB2 duties. Jacksonville may be comfortable moving forward with Tuten as RB1, or they may push him to earn the job over Rodriguez, who put up a good competition in the regular season all last year. With an average annual value of $5MM, though, it seems Rodriguez is expected to contribute.

Ely Allen contributed to this post.