Bhayshul Tuten Camp Update — August 23: His Best Practice of the Season

Bhayshul Tuten had his best practice of the season on Wednesday — that is John Shipley's phrase at Jaguar Report, from the joint session with Carolina, where Tuten hit holes decisively and showed shiftiness at the second level on a day the running game was Jacksonville's most impressive unit. Liam Coen's read of the room afterward, at the team's website: "I was pleased with the way the backs were hitting the holes." After a week in which Tuten generated no practice items of his own while his co-starter filled the notebooks, this was the loudest day of his August.

The competition half of the file stayed live in the same session. Chris Rodriguez Jr. ground out consistent yards between the tackles in the same practice, per Shipley, so Wednesday was less a verdict than both halves of the committee having good days against an external front. Neither back recorded a touch in Friday's 34-to-17 loss to the Panthers — the backfield work in the backup-heavy game went to 33-year-old Ameer Abdullah, who ran for 45 yards on six carries, and DeeJay Dallas, per the box score at CBS Sports and John Oehser's game report at the team's website. Sitting the game alongside the veterans is itself mild information for a second-year back who entered camp with a job to win.

Back in June we previewed Tuten as a bet on a job not yet won — a rotation rookie year, first-team spring reps that came partly by forfeit while Rodriguez rehabbed a foot — and said August against a healthy Rodriguez would settle it. It has not settled it; it has sharpened it into a genuine two-man share, with each back now holding a signature week of camp.

What to watch: whether either back separates in the finale against Tampa Bay if the starters sit again, and how the backfield behind the co-starters shakes out at next Sunday's cutdown to 53. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._