Adjust those mock drafts: The Saints have signed former Jaguars RB Travis Etienne to a four-year, $52 million deal. That's good for the highest total contract value of any NFL running back, while the $13 million per-year number ranks sixth at the position.

Travis Etienne Signs With New Orleans Saints: Fantasy Football Fallout

On the one hand, ETN has racked up 1,441, 1,484 and 1,399 total yards with an average of 10 touchdowns in three seasons when he was healthy enough to suit up for all 17 games. He finished 2025 as the RB8 in PPR points per game and is still just 27 years young. Etienne deserves credit for proving capable of functioning across all three downs, even earning PFF's second-highest pass blocking grade among RBs last season. The man made some great plays last season!

And yet, I have some concerns:

• There was a noticeable dip in efficiency here throughout last season: Etienne averaged a robust 5 yards per carry in Weeks 1-9 compared to just 3.6 the rest of the way.
• Kudos to Etienne for executing the plays, but man, a LOT of his receiving success sure seemed to be of the schemed variety. Not to suggest he's a bad receiver; it's just tough to point to a massive skill improvement as the reason for him catching 6 touchdowns in 2025 after having just 1 during the first three seasons of his career.
• The once-diabolical home run speed is pretty much gone. Guys like J.K. Dobbins, Chris Rodriguez, Chuba Hubbard and Blake Corum all posted a faster top ballcarrier speed than Etienne last season (Next-Gen Stats).

The good news for Etienne is that landing in New Orleans with this sort of contract makes it pretty unlikely that we see anything close to a committee—especially if the team officially parts ways with Alvin Kamara, which seems inevitable at this point considering this deal *and* the fact they restructured his contract last Friday.

The bad news for ETN signing with the Saints is that this offensive environment was one of the worst in the league for RBs last season. We can see this with my "RB Supporting Cast" rating, which takes every team's average rank in percentage of carries facing 8+ defenders in the box, RB yards before contact per carry, offensive points per drive and RB target share.

All that said: Assuming Kamara is, in fact, playing elsewhere or retired in 2026, Etienne immediately enters the upside RB2 conversation thanks to the potential for all sorts of fantasy-friendly volume. It's also reasonable to believe that rising second-year QB Tyler Shough will improve the fantasy-friendly nature of this offense.

Initially, I'm inclined to rank Etienne as the RB15 in the same tier as Josh Jacobs and Breece Hall. Expect Kenneth Walker to REALLY zoom up ADP boards after landing in Kansas City, while Bucky Irving is a candidate to sink after the Bucs signed Kenneth Gainwell. Via the Fantasy Life ADP tool:

Bhayshul Tuten Fantasy Football Outlook ... If He Keeps RB1 Status In Jacksonville

As for the Jaguars: Rise up, Bhayshul Tuten truthers … for now. Seeing ETN leave town is undoubtedly good news for the rising second-year speedster, but we still have several days of free agency and the NFL Draft before officially considering the 2025 fourth-round pick in the clear.

IF (big if, see what I did there) the Jaguars don't make any meaningful additions to their backfield during the next few months: Tuten would warrant low-end RB2 treatment next to fellow second-year talents like TreVeyon Henderson, Cam Skattebo and Quinshon Judkins. And hell, coach speak and/or reports indicating that he'll be featured as THE clear-cut bell cow could lead to Tuten being ranked ahead of all of them.

There are some concerns: Tuten's advanced numbers aside from tackles avoided per carry weren't overly great last season, and LeQuint Allen threatens to take pass-down work thanks to being a BEAST in pass protection. Still, the upside is real inside a Jaguars offense that sure seems to be on the rise thanks to the Trevor Lawrence and Liam Coen partnership.