Bhayshul Tuten — Week 1: Fifteen Carries, More Than Anyone Else
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Tuten carried fifteen times for sixty-six yards Sunday, more than double Chris Rodriguez's six, with three runs of ten or more and no touchdowns, and caught his one target for twenty-two yards on the first drive of the second half. None of Jacksonville's three red-zone plays or five short-yardage third downs went to him in a 34–10 win over the Browns.
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Bhayshul Tuten's longest play on Sunday was a catch. Third quarter, 14 oh five left, first and five at the Cleveland 45 after a neutral-zone infraction, Jacksonville up 24 to nothing on its first possession of the half: Trevor Lawrence short left, five yards behind the line, and Tuten took it 22 yards to the 23, Grant Delpit on the tackle. That play was worth +1.3 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and two plays later, with a four-yard loss and a false start in between, Jakobi Meyers caught the 32-yard touchdown that made it 31 to nothing.
On the ground: 15 carries, 66 yards, no touchdowns, longest run 12, three carries of 10 or more, seven of the 15 successful, four first downs, and −1.1 expected points in total. The runs of 12, 10 12 were all around left end — the first with eight 27 left in the half, the play after KC Concepcion's fumble, from the Cleveland 44 to the 32 on the drive that ended in Brenton Strange's touchdown; the second the first snap of the third quarter; the third from the Cleveland 35 to the 23 with five oh six left in the third. The last four carries of his day were the last Jacksonville possession that mattered: seven, six, −1, and no gain on third and five from the 39 with five 39 left, and Logan Cooke punted. Six carries before halftime, nine after. He also recovered Brian Thomas's fumble at the Cleveland 41 in the first quarter.
The split: Tuten 15, Chris Rodriguez six, Ameer Abdullah four for 32, one each to Jakobi Meyers and Travis Hunter, two to Lawrence, three kneels by Mullens. Jacksonville ran 32 times for a hundred 26. The carries Tuten did not get are the ones to notice: the Jaguars ran three plays in the red zone and the one handoff among them, from the Cleveland nine, went to Rodriguez; three third-and-one runs went to Jakobi Meyers around left end, to Rodriguez on a direct snap and to Lawrence on a sneak; a third and two went to Rodriguez. Tuten's 15 came between the twenties.
Back in June the preview's line on Tuten was that the price was paying for a job he had not won — a rookie season that finished 50-first among backs, a floor built on touchdowns rather than carries or targets. Sunday inverted that: the carries were his, 15 of 32 and more than anyone, and the touchdowns and the short-yardage work were not. One game does not hand out the job, and a 24-point lead is a good day to hand a back 15 carries. Jacksonville is at the Broncos on Sunday the twentieth; the number to watch is carries inside the 10.
_Data via nflverse._
When Bhayshul Tuten's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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