Clemson football: Travis Etienne taking all snaps at WR made perfect sense

Former Clemson football player Travis Etienne made news when Urban Meyer announced that he would be taking all his snaps at wide receiver and not running back during the Jaguars minicamp this past weekend.

Many people took to Twitter over the weekend to voice their displeasure that the Jaguars would trade back into the first round to draft the Clemson football all-time leading rusher just to move him to wide receiver. Many even questioned Urban Meyers’ intelligence and likened him to failed NFL head coach Chip Kelly who went from college mastermind to NFL dud.

After taking a step back and looking at everything going on in Jacksonville, having Travis Etienne take all of his snaps at wide receiver actually made the most sense for everyone involved.

Travis Etienne was impressive as a pass-catcher his last two seasons with Clemson football

Over his final two years as a Tiger, Travis accumulated more than 1,000 yards receiving on just 85 receptions. That was his biggest knock after his third season – he needed to prove that the 432 yards receiving was not a fluke and he did that.

Meyer has been on record stating that he saw Etienne as a third-down running back and lining up in the slot, which makes sense.

However, the biggest reason Travis had to take all his reps at rookie minicamp was actually due to Trevor Lawrence.

Trevor is still recovering from having his left (non-throwing shoulder) labrum surgically repaired. The Jaguars training staff and Trevor’s shoulder cleared him for non-contact throwing and the biggest stipulation was that he not be knocked to the ground for any reason.

Because of that, Trevor was not scheduled to hand the ball off and was limited to no more than 40 actual throws per practice.

The Jaguars have four quarterbacks on their roster – Lawrence, Jake Luton, C.J. Beathard, and last year’s starter Gardener Minshew II. Because they had no other rookie quarterbacks on the roster and no other rookie running backs on the roster, it makes sense that Travis took all of his snaps at wide receiver.

The NFL is a passing league and the more Travis can add to his tool bag will make him that much better in the long run. As a running back, NFL teams look to get rid of you not keep you long term, this weekend will go a long way in helping Etienne get acclimated to the job he now has.