JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — When Bhayshul Tuten left the Jacksonville Jaguars facility in mid-January, he wasn’t sure what his role would be when he got back in April for the offseason conditioning program.

The No. 2 running back behind Travis Etienne Jr.? The No. 1? Splitting the job on a 50-50 basis with Etienne … or someone else?

However, Tuten did know this: He wasn’t going to waste time worrying about it.

“No matter what, I’m going to be ready for whatever the outcome is,” Tuten said on Jan. 12 during the Jaguars’ locker room cleanout day. “Whatever God brings to the table for me, I think I’m ready to move forward with trusting [that role] and the man above.

“If I’m not ready now, then I’ll be ready come September or whenever I need to.”

There’s a bit more clarity after free agency — Etienne signed a four-year, $47.4 million contract with the New Orleans Saints and the Jaguars replaced him with Chris Rodriguez Jr., signing the former Washington Commanders backup to a two-year, $10 million contract.

It’ll be a while before it’s determined what the workload share between Tuten and Rodriguez will be.

Regardless of how it plays out, general manager James Gladstone feels good about the Jaguars’ running back room, which at this point also includes seven-year veteran DeeJay Dallas, second-year player LeQuint Allen Jr., and Ja’Quinden Jackson, an undrafted rookie free agent in 2025 who spent the entire season on the practice squad.

“It’s really exciting because Bhayshul was in a spot obviously where he didn’t receive the bulk of the carries, but certainly had his moments to shine throughout the course of the year and showcase a good chunk of what he has to offer,” Gladstone said. “So, it’s a really good crew that we feel confident in at this stage. Look forward seeing how things unfold throughout the course of the spring and allowing our coaches to get hands on with Chris and see how that all takes shape.

“But as it stands, it’s a fairly well-rounded, complementary group and we’re excited about it.”

Tuten, the Jaguars’ 2025 fourth-round pick out of Virginia Tech, ran for 305 yards and five touchdowns and caught 10 passes for 79 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie last season. He missed two games in December with a broken finger but returned for the regular-season finale and had four carries for 52 yards and three kickoff returns for 49 yards in the Jaguars’ wild-card loss to Buffalo.

Allen played mainly as a third-down back because of his blocking and had 23 carries for 94 yards and 10 catches for 54 yards. Dallas joined the team in December and played mainly as a kickoff returner and had just two carries.

Combined, those players ran for 422 yards (3.9 per carry) and five touchdowns, which still didn’t equal what Rodriguez did with the Commanders: 500 yards (4.8 per carry) and six rushing touchdowns in 2025. Rodriguez rushed for 920 yards and 10 touchdowns in mainly a reserve role in three seasons in Washington, which makes him the Jaguars’ most experienced back.

He also comes with experience in head coach Liam Coen’s offense because Coen was Kentucky’s offensive coordinator in 2021 during Rodriguez’s junior season. That might make him an early leader to be the Jaguars’ No. 1 back heading into the summer.

Rodriguez, however, doesn’t see it that way. He was part of a back-by-committee approach with the Commanders and will approach things the same way in Jacksonville.

“Figuring out what it is that can help make us more efficient or not even just as a running back, but from an offensive standpoint [is a priority],” he said. “That’s a conversation that we have with the guys and going into the season we’ll figure out what we need and how we can improve. It’s going to be a competition every day with those guys. So, I feel like it’s going to be a fun process.”

At this point it does look like the plan will be to have Rodriguez and Tuten share the bulk of the carries. That could change, however, as it did last season after Etienne’s strong spring and training camp led to him getting the top spot over Tank Bigsby, who was then traded to the Eagles.

“There’s a lot of strong matches just generally from how those two [Rodriguez and Tuten] in tandem can really work together,” Gladstone said. “And then also our interest in continuing to find ways to level up our capacity in the run game to make it a really balanced attack.”