In his lone season as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator, Liam Coen revitalized the team’s running game. Now, he’s doing the same thing as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Jags are now 3-1 and have the NFL’s third leading rusher in running back Travis Etienne. Etienne, you’ll recall, was the second of two first-round draft picks (QB Trevor Lawrence) back in 2021. Until 2025 he’s been considered a disappointment, but now he’s racking up fantasy points on my bench in two leagues.
Backup center Robert Hainsey was with Tampa Bay last year and saw Coen work his run-game magic there.
“I watched it in Tampa make a huge difference,” said Hainsey. “When we’re playing well with our technique and fundamentals, and Liam’s calling it well, [the run game] is really hard to stop, and we haven’t reached the level that we’re capable of yet, which is exciting.”
Liam Coen’s scheme helping Travis Etienne tremendously
Etienne didn’t all of a sudden figure out how to play running back overnight. He was a first-round pick for a reason; he was really good at football at one point. He had a good sophomore season (he missed his rookie campaign with a Lisfranc injury) with 1,125 yards, five touchdowns and a 6.1-yard average.
However, the last two years he’s averaged less than four yards per carry and there was plenty of talk that he’d be traded this offseason. So what’s the reason for his resurgence? It’s a combination of Coen’s blocking schemes and tailoring the offense to his players’ strengths.
“It’s more just within the scheme having plays off of plays and so that maybe it’s less thinking for those guys up front and it’s more of the same, but maybe different presentations while also saying, OK, we want to be able to run inside or midzone with a little bit more,” Coen said. “So, it’s just different ways of keeping your run game diverse so that [defenses] don’t get a beat on just you’re trying to run it inside every time or outside every time. A mix of zone and gap helps those guys so that when they’re hitting blocks, the defense isn’t sure if it’s going to be zone or gap, to them, or away from them.”
Travis Etienne was brilliant against the 49ers
Last Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, Etienne ran for 124 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries, good for 6.5 yards per carry. The touchdown was a 48-yard explosion, his second touchdown run of more than 40 yards this season.
“The offensive line did a great job of setting it up and I just followed my blockers, and they got me to the promised land,” Etienne said. “I feel like if they keep blocking like that, I’m going to keep doing what I do.”
Hainsey says it has a lot to do with everyone on the offensive line getting on the same page.
“I was in that role [as a backup in Tampa] last year, and you know, you’re kind of watching the whole game, and every play you’re just kind of checking to see if everyone gets up or not,” Hainsey said. “When someone doesn’t, you’ve just got to be ready to rock and trust your preparation, trust your technique and fundamentals, and those guys came in and did a great job.”
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