{"id":513505,"date":"2026-03-09T19:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T19:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/513505\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T19:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T19:07:10","slug":"rb-travis-etienne-jr-reportedly-agrees-to-4-year-52-million-contract-with-saints-in-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/513505\/","title":{"rendered":"RB Travis Etienne Jr. reportedly agrees to 4-year, $52 million contract with Saints in free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the league’s top free-agent running backs is reportedly off the market, as former Jacksonville Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr. has signed a four-year, $52 million deal with the New Orleans Saints, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Etienne is from Louisiana, and now he’s heading back as a member of the Saints. His departure from Jacksonville marks the end of his time playing with Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, whom Etienne also joined in the backfield at Clemson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Together, they won a national title with the Tigers back in 2018.<\/p>\n

Etienne, 27, is entering his sixth year in the league after the Jaguars selected him 25th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft<\/a>, 24 picks after they made Lawrence the top selection. He missed his entire rookie season with a Lisfranc injury in his foot<\/a> but quickly hit the ground running upon his return, totaling a career-high 1,125 rushing yards and five touchdowns in his first year as a starter.<\/p>\n

[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season<\/a>]<\/p>\n

That season, the Jaguars made it back to the playoffs for the first time in five years and staged a memorable comeback against the Los Angeles Chargers in the wild-card round, digging themselves out of a 27-0 hole.<\/p>\n

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Following a 2023 campaign in which Etienne piled up 12 touchdowns, including 11 on the ground, he took a step back in 2024. That season, he actually finished with fewer carries than Tank Bigsby. It didn’t help that Etienne was averaging less than four yards a pop for the second season in a row.<\/p>\n

But with Doug Pederson out and Liam Coen in as head coach, Etienne got another crack at leading the room, and he made the most of the opportunity.<\/p>\n

Helping the Jags to a 13-4 record and another AFC South title, Etienne rushed for 1,107 yards and seven touchdowns, in addition to catching 36 passes for 292 yards and a career-high 6 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

He’s always been a threat as a pass catcher. Etienne’s made at least 35 grabs in each of the four NFL seasons he’s been healthy for. On the ground, he’s eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark three times since joining the league.<\/p>\n

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News of Etienne’s signing broke after it was reported that former Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III, the reigning Super Bowl MVP, is signing a three-year deal worth up to $45 million with the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the league’s top free-agent running backs is reportedly off the market, as former Jacksonville Jaguars running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,232669,451,1811,1236,27527,6337,1814,3,232668,8852,96368,452,453,95919,1805],"class_list":["post-513505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-etienne","tag-headlines","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kenneth-walker-iii","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-news","tag-rich-storry","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-tank-bigsby","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-travis-etienne","tag-trevor-lawrence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}