Saints lured Etienne back to his native Louisiana<\/a> with a four-year contract worth up to $52 million.<\/p>\nStill, Etienne was in high demand by former Jaguars teammates, coaches and other staff who looked eager to say hello and wish him well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to see him after practice,\u201d Jaguars second-year coach Liam Coen said. \u201cWe\u2019ll never be able to replace what he was able to do for us, whether it was last year or what he\u2019s done in Jacksonville throughout the course of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Etienne \u201cto come back home and to play for an organization which he, I know, followed as a kid and to be able to provide and to get a contract like that, I mean, he should be extremely proud of himself,\u201d Coen said. \u201cI am of him \u2014 and the relationship that he had with a lot of guys on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Etienne surpassed the 1,000-yard mark as a rusher in three of the past four seasons. In 2025, he rushed for 1,107 yards and seven touchdowns, and also had 292 yards receiving and six TD catches.<\/p>\n
Bhayshul Tuten \u2014 who is among the leading candidates to become Jacksonville\u2019s No. 1 running back this season \u2014 said Etienne will bring more than production on the field to the Saints.<\/p>\n
Etienne was adept at helping younger Jaguars teammates understand the play book and at demonstrating how to take a professional approach to football, said Tuten, a 2025 fourth-round draft choice out of Virginia Tech.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always in the treatment room. He was always getting something done. If he wasn\u2019t hurt, if he wasn\u2019t nicked up, he\u2019d still be in there just doing the preventative things,\u201d Tuten said. \u201cHe\u2019s a great guy and I\u2019m definitely grateful I met him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuten said he and Etienne bonded over their enjoyment of high-performance cars. They drive similar makes and models (M series BMWs) and enjoy customizing them with accessories. Tuten credits time spent with Etienne on and off the field with preparing him to take on a larger role in Jacksonville\u2019s backfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing with him for a year, and then one of your good pals goes off and now he\u2019s in New Orleans, it\u2019s sad to see,\u201d Tuten said. \u201cBut I know he got what he deserved and he\u2019s happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow my role increases more, which I\u2019m excited for,\u201d Tuten added. \u201cSo it\u2019s a little sour, but a little sweet at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Etienne beamed when he spoke about being able to catch up with the Jaguars.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very gratifying,\u201d Etienne said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re somewhere at a place for five years and you put your heart and soul into a place, man, that\u2019s how it\u2019s supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Etienne also projected success for Tuten, saying he was proud \u201cto see the growth that he\u2019s continued to showcase.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven when he was a rookie, he was kind of beyond his years in the way that he prepared and the way he attacked the game,\u201d Etienne said. \u201cHe always was a sponge; he always was learning. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe has that work ethic within him to get him to that next level,\u201d Etienne added. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s going to make him great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saints\u2019 Etienne is still popular with ex-Jags teammates, touts Tuten\u2019s potential with Jacksonville Saints\u2019 Etienne is still popular…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":999662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,9070,400359,3188,723,400360,23590,7310,8013,72005,21461,6566,1234,113895,35551,112328,3007,77634,400358,39709,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,80883,1628],"class_list":["post-999661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-etienne","tag-ex-jag-teammate","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-four-year-contract","tag-guy","tag-jacksonville","tag-jaguars","tag-joint-practice","tag-new-orleans","tag-place","tag-potential","tag-practice-field","tag-saint","tag-saints","tag-team","tag-travis-etienne","tag-tuten","tag-tyler-shough","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-yard","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117092282092793341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/999662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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METAIRIE, La. \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n