Jaguars running back Travis Etienne shared some advice for quarterback Trevor Lawrence when he spoke to reporters on Monday, but the two players may not be on the same team the next time they take the field.
Sunday’s loss to the Bills brought an end to Etienne’s contract with the team that took him 25th overall in the 2021 draft. Etienne missed his rookie season with a foot injury, but ran for more than 1,000 yards in three of the next four years. That includes his 1,107 yards during the 2025 regular season.
Etienne said on Monday that he’s not focused on contractual matters yet, but that it “would be crazy” if he’s played his final game for the Jaguars. He also suggested that a healthy number of teams will be out of the running if he does hit free agency in March.
“You don’t have to worry about me going to to the cold,” Etienne said, via Fox Sports. “I’m probably not supposed to say that.”
Etienne could have a change of tune in the event he’s on the open market, but the Jaguars would keep that from happening if they are able to strike a deal in the coming weeks.
Jaguars Clips
The Jaguars’ eight-game winning streak and their season came to an end against the Bills on Sunday, but there’s a lot of optimism about the team’s future after their 13-win season.
One of the reasons for that optimism is the way quarterback Trevor Lawrence played over the second half of the season. Lawrence’s luster had dimmed at the end of Doug Pederson’s era and the jury remained out during a 5-4 start to the 2025 campaign, but he played some of his best football to help the Jaguars secure the AFC South title.
Running back Travis Etienne has played with Lawrence since both players were at Clemson and he had a colorful answer to a question about what Lawrence needs to do to take his game to an even higher level.
“I would say the biggest thing for him is just let his nuts hang, I guess. Just be cocky, stop caring what people think,” Etienne said, via Demetrius Harvey of Jacksonville.com. “Just don’t give a damn, you’re the man. Just go out there, be yourself, make plays and just play fearlessly with reckless abandon.”
Lawrence will be in Jacksonville for a while, but it remains to be seen if Etienne will continue to share the backfield with him. Etienne is not under contract for the 2026 season, so he could move on as a free agent in March.
Nearly a decade ago, the Rams hired a then 30-year-old Sean McVay to be their head coach.
It’s worked out pretty well for them ever since.
Could the Browns take a similar approach in 2026?
According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, Cleveland has put in a request to interview Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski for their head coach opening.
Udinski, who turned 30 on Monday, just completed his first season as Jacksonville’s OC under head coach Liam Coen. Udinski did not call plays, with Coen filling that role for the club.
Udinski has been a fast riser since entering the coaching ranks after completing his collegiate playing career as a defensive end at Towson. He started as a graduate assistant at Baylor in 2018. He was a coaching assistant with the Panthers from 2020-2021 before joining the Vikings’ staff under Kevin O’Connell in 2022.
He moved from assistant to the head coach in his first season, to assistant QBs coach in his second season, and was assistant offensive coordinator and assistant QBs coach in 2024.
Udinski, however, does not have the play-calling experience of McVay. He had been Washington’s offensive coordinator for three seasons, calling plays for two of them.
With several coach vacancies, Udinski has an outside shot at landing a head coaching job. Or he could be a potential play-calling offensive coordinator if Jacksonville allows him to move on, since he doesn’t have that role with the Jaguars.
The Jaguars pulled off a remarkable turnaround by going from 4-13 also-rans to 13-4 division champions, but their hopes of an extended playoff run were dashed by the Bills in Jacksonville on Sunday.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen answered two Jaguars touchdowns with a touchdown pass and a touchdown run that allowed his team to advance to the divisional round with a 27-24 win. Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw three touchdowns, but his second interception of the game sealed the win for Buffalo.
Lawrence called it a “tough way” to end the season during his postgame press conference, but said that the team’s success feels like the start of something rather than a case of catching lightning in a bottle.
“There’s no guaranteed success, but I do feel like this is sustainable, the things that we’re doing,” Lawrence said, via the team’s website. “I know offensively and defensively, just both sides of the ball had a hell of a year when it got down to the end, where we finished, and the growth that we had.”
One of the reasons Lawrence feels that way is because he believes he has “complete ownership” of the offense after his first season playing for head coach Liam Coen. The Jaguars will bank on that duo continuing to thrive once they’re back on the field later this year.
The Bills scored a go-ahead touchdown with 1:04 left to play against the Jaguars on Sunday and head coach Sean McDermott was asked after the game if he thought about leaving Jacksonville with less time to try for a comeback.
Josh Allen was initially ruled to have scored a touchdown on a 4th-and-1 tush push from the Jaguars’ 11-yard line, but a replay showed he was down just short of the end zone. The Jaguars used their final timeout to avoid a 10-second runoff, which meant the Bills could have taken a knee to run time off the clock while leaving themselves three chances to punch the ball in.
They opted to run another sneak with Allen on first down and McDermott explained his reasoning after the 27-24 victory.
“I really, honestly, wanted to try and bleed the clock down if we could, but it’s like, ‘Okay, what plays that you have that do that?’ We can probably go through this for about an hour and talk about this,” McDermott said. “You take a knee, the ball is inside the one, by the time we take the snap and even just knee it, then you’re like ‘Okay, run the clock to what 30 seconds, 28, whatever.’ So we’re talking about these things. I’m going, ‘Man, I know who they have on that side of the ball, at a minimum, starting with the place kicker.’ And, so, we were like, ‘Alright let’s not get cute, let’s just go win this thing and put our defense out there.’ They did, and they executed at a high level.”
McDermott’s decision would have been viewed differently had the Jaguars gone on to score, but safety Cole Bishop intercepted Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence on first down and the Bills were on to the divisional round.
While scoring Buffalo’s first touchdown of Sunday’s playoff win at Jacksonville, Bills quarterback Josh Allen got twisted up after he crossed the goal line. He seemed to injure his knee.
He was checked out on the sideline and didn’t miss a beat.
“It was more of a precautionary thing. Just got rolled up on,” Allen told reporters after the 27-24 win. “And they wanted to take a quick look. But we’re all good.”
Allen’s mindset is that he’s all good, even when he isn’t. That’s how he handled the foot injury he suffered against the Browns last month.
Coach Sean McDermott seemed to imply some level of concern, telling reporters as to Allen, “We’ve got to get him as healthy as we can . . . for next week.”
And so it makes sense to watch the injury report in the coming days. Not that it will keep Allen from playing in the divisional round, even if he shows up on one or more of the three daily disclosures with a new injury.
There’s another important factor at play. With the winner of Monday night’s Texans-Steelers game due to play next Sunday, the Bills will play the Broncos on Saturday if the Patriots beat the Chargers tonight, and the Bills will face the Texans-Steelers winner on Sunday if the Chargers win.
That extra day could make a big difference.
The Buffalo Bills are moving on to the divisional round of the playoffs, and the Jacksonville Jaguars’ season is over.
The Bills beat the Jaguars 27-24 after a wild back-and-forth fourth quarter that continued a thrilling wild card weekend in the NFL.
The game had four fourth-quarter lead changes, tied for the most in the fourth quarter of any NFL playoff game, ever. In the end, however, Trevor Lawrence threw an interception with 54 seconds left and the Jaguars out of timeouts, and that let the Bills just kneel out the clock to win it.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen ran for the game-winning touchdown on a one-yard quarterback sneak with 1:04 remaining, following a remarkable nine-yard quarterback sneak he ran on the play before. Allen finished with 33 yards and two touchdowns rushing, and also completed 28 of 35 passes for 273 yards, with a touchdown and no interceptions.
Lawrence had his moments, completing 18 of 30 passes for 207 yards and three touchdowns, but his two interceptions were killers.
Now Allen will lead the Bills into the next round, in pursuit of his first Super Bowl.
The Bills are back on top in a back-and-forth battle in Jacksonville.
Josh Allen hit Dalton Kincaid for a 15-yard touchdown pass that gave the Bills a 20-17 lead midway through the fourth quarter.
It’s been a great weekend of wild card playoff action, with every game having fourth-quarter lead changes. The Bills and Jaguars have already traded the lead twice in the fourth quarter today.
The Bills did have some bad news before the touchdown, as receiver Gabe Davis took a hard hit to his left leg and had to be helped off the field. Davis was carted to the locker room with a left knee injury. Davis suffered a season-ending left knee injury in Jacksonville last season, and it appeared that he may have done so again.
Now it’s time for Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars to take their shot at another fourth-quarter lead change.
Wild card weekend continues to be wild.
Every game so far this weekend has had at least one fourth-quarter lead change, with the latest coming when Jaguars wide receiver Parker Washington caught a touchdown pass from Trevor Lawrence to give the Jaguars a 17-13 lead over the Bills.
Bills safety Jordan Poyer has been ruled out for the rest of the game with an injury, and the Jaguars have been picking on his replacement, rookie Jordan Hancock.
Now it’s time for Bills quarterback Josh Allen to show what he can do, as the Bills attempt a fourth-quarter comeback of their own.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen is having a good game today in Jacksonville, but he’s taking a beating in the process.
Allen had already been checked and cleared for a concussion when he led the Bills on a 10-play, 92-yard drive that ended with Allen himself running for a two-yard touchdown in the second quarter. On that drive, Allen hit his throwing hand on a teammate’s helmet, and he appeared to injure his knee on the touchdown run.
But Allen went into the medical tent only briefly before he emerged looking ready to go.
Late in the second quarter, Allen is 11-for-12 for 110 yards, plus 12 yards and a touchdown running, as the Bills lead 10-7.
