After the Jacksonville Jaguars selected former Clemson Tigers quarterback Trevor Lawrence at No. 1 overall earlier in the evening on Thursday, all of the attention immediately shifted to running back Travis Etienne as far as the ACC powerhouse was concerned. However, the wait is finally over for Clemson as the Jacksonville Jaguars have officially selected Etienne with the No. 25 overall pick in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
At pick No. 25, Jacksonville reunites Clemson RB Travis Etienne with QB Trevor Lawrence.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 30, 2021
Clemson teammates the past several years will continue to be teammates with the Jaguars under first-year coach Urban Meyer, who clearly saw the value of keeping two great players together, giving them a level of familiarity which will increase their comfort zone in the pros and enable them to be comparatively more relaxed in their first NFL season. There is certainly a strong logical component to this move for Urban.
With Etienne often finding himself in the same conversation as former Alabama Crimson Tide running back Najee Harris, it was the latter that actually came off the board first to the Steelers just one pick earlier at No. 24 overall. As a result, Etienne has become the second running back taken on Thursday evening.
The 22-year-old Etienne spent four memorable seasons at Clemson en route to serving as a superstar-caliber player for his final three seasons with the Tigers. This is the player the Jaguars hope they are getting with a late-first-round pick. He rushed for more than 1,600 yards as both a sophomore and a junior and even tallied a whopping 24 rushing touchdowns back in 2018-19. During the COVID-19-shortened 2020-21 campaign, Etienne rushed for 914 yards and 14 touchdowns on 168 carries.
The soon-to-be rookie running back for the Jaguars also possesses the ability to catch the football out of the backfield. Etienne recorded 102 career receptions for 1,155 yards and eight more scores during his four-year stint at Clemson.
Perhaps most notably for Jaguars fans who are studying up on their new backfield workhorse, Etienne broke the ACC record for career rushing yards as a result of Clemson's narrow win over the Boston College Eagles in late October. He surpassed the previous mark of 4,602 career rushing yards set by former North Carolina State Wolfpack running back Ted Brown, who played collegiately between 1975 and 1978.
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