JaMycal Hasty 2023 Outlook
The Jaguars have a clear No. 1 running back in Travis Etienne, they drafted Tank Bigsby out of Auburn in the third round in April, and they signed free agent D’Ernest Johnson. What’s the reason to be optimistic for JaMycal Hasty, then? The front office believes in him. The Jaguars gave Hasty a two-year extension last winter when they didn’t necessarily have to, as he was set to be a restricted free agent essentially under Jacksonville’s control. We like Johnson’s upside, but Hasty should be viewed as the RB2 until he’s unseated. Hasty got just 46 handoffs in 2022, his first season with Jacksonville, but 33 of them came from Week 12 and onward. Catching six passes on six targets against Houston in Week 17 should also help Hasty’s cause when Trevor Lawrence wants to know who he can trust. “Trevor doesn’t blink that all of the sudden there’s a new guy standing next to him on the primary route in a third-down concept, because he’s got a lot of trust built into JaMycal,” offensive coordinator Press Taylor said last season.
