Travis Etienne is flying up draft boards in fantasy football. After a tragic foot injury sidelined him for all of 2021, the young running back looks to take his first NFL snaps this season. The Clemson back profiled as an elite pass-catching back coming out of college. Pairing him with his superstar quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, was a match made in heaven. Accumulating over 1,000 yards receiving, and James Robinson dealing with an Achilles injury will lead to elite production from Etienne right? Unfortunately not.
To start off training camp, James Robinson avoided the PUP list and was working off to the side. This means Robinson has a chance to return by week 1, which would be about 10 months after his injury. Not to say Robinson will dominate the carries out of the backfield, but he has more than proven his worth. Consecutive seasons of at least 900 total yards for Robinson indicate Travis Etienne will be far from a workhorse running back.
The main selling point of Etienne is when he has the ball in his hands. Now, people want to say Etienne can operate out of the slot when Robinson is taking carries out of the backfield. But there isn’t much to that theory either. The Jaguars just signed Christian Kirk this offseason. One might think nothing of that, but it affects Etienne’s role greatly. Kirk ran over 78% of his routes from the slot last year on the Cardinals, and Jacksonville paid him $72 million to do the same for them.
Now, looking at Trevor Lawrence, last year doesn’t boast anything better for Travis Etienne going into 2022. Lawrence struggled, throwing 12 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. Not only that, but his passing tendencies didn’t favor the check-downs to running backs. His 4,745 intended air yards ranked 7th most according to pro football reference. What this means is that Lawrence threw downfield at a higher clip than a majority of the NFL.
Taking all these points into account, what can we expect from Travis Etienne in fantasy football in 2022? Well, he’ll be splitting carries with James Robinson out of the backfield. Slot snaps will be severely limited with Christian Kirk in the picture, and his quarterback doesn’t really like checking the ball down. In the passing game, the best we can hope for is a couple of screens set up for him. But even then, that’s not enough to warrant a 5th round draft pick in fantasy football. I love the talent of Travis Etienne, but hate the situation. Fade him this year.
