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EspañolFor Jacksonville Jaguars' free agent Travis Etienne, the running back market is continuing to take shape ahead of free agency beginning.
On Tuesday, ahead of the NFL's franchise tag deadline, the New York Jets tagged Breece Hall. He will not be hitting the open market.
Hall is also considered one of the best free agent backs this year, ranked second among his position group by PFF. So for Etienne, with Hall not available for other teams to pursue, his market is likely to grow.
Also of note, the Seattle Seahawks will not be franchise tagging Kenneth Walker. He will now be a free agent, able to sign with any team.
Looking at PFF's free agency rankings, Walker and Etienne are now the top two options with Hall no longer available. Both will garner their share of interest, potentially making it more difficult for the Jaguars to re-sign Etienne if that's what they'd like to do.
Not helping matters is the Jaguars' tight salary cap situation at the moment. We also need to point out that the Jaguars planned ahead for this moment by drafting Bhayshul Tuten and LeQuint Allen last April.
We saw the Cowboys recently re-sign Javonte Williams to a three-year deal worth $24 million.
That's an average of $8 million per year as PFF's 31st-ranked free agent and sixth-best running back. Etienne, for some context, is the 15th-ranked player overall and is now the second-ranked running back.
So Etienne's contract value should be a bit over that $8 million per year mark. PFF projects that Etienne will earn $11.5 million per year on his next deal.
Now, one thing to watch for in the coming days that could supress the overall running back market is if several restricted free agents from around the NFL are non-tendered, which would make them unrestricted free agents and able to sign where they please.
Some players to watch in this regard are Sean Tucker, Chris Rodriguez, and Keaton Mitchell. Naturally, with more potential free agent options available, that is going to benefit the teams over the players.
Awaiting some RFA decisions coming over the next week at RB with the right of first refusal tender set a non-trivial $3.52M. Whether Sean Tucker, Chris Rodriguez, and Keaton Mitchell are available could change the RB market https://t.co/rsolowF36O
— Sigmund Bloom (@SigmundBloom) March 3, 2026
But as of now, given how the running back market is shaping up, if the Jaguars want Etienne back, re-signing him may not be easy.
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: NFL free agency: Running back market continues to take shape