JACKSONVILLE – He believes in the run – and believes the Jaguars can excel there.

Liam Coen made that clear Tuesday, with the Jaguars' second-year head coach speaking about the area extensively – and emphasizing its importance – when meeting with the media during the NFL 2026 League Meetings.

The Jaguars must run well. And Coen believes they will do so.

"I gotta believe we can run the ball effectively next year with the guys we have," he said.

Coen, speaking at the annual AFC Coaches breakfast at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Ariz., discussed multiple topics Tuesday – and early in the 40-minute session he focused on a running game transitioning following the offseason departure of 2025 leading rusher Travis Etienne Jr.

"We're always looking for better balance on offense," Coen said. "The run game for the first eight weeks of the season really kind of carried us offensively and allowed us to win some of those games.

"The pass game in the second half of the season really allowed us to go offensively. We have to create a little more balance there."

The Jaguars' running back room as it stands now:

Second-year veteran Bhayshul Tuten, fourth-year veteran Chris Rodriguez Jr., second-year veteran LeQuint Allen Jr., seventh-year veteran DeeJay Dallas and first-year veteran Ja'Quinden Jackson – with Etienne signing with the New Orleans Saints as an unrestricted free agent last month and Rodriguez signing with the Jaguars as a restricted free agent from the Washington Commanders.

Rodriguez played for Coen at the University of Kentucky when Coen was offensive coordinator there.

"Losing a guy like TJ (Etienne) – a first-round pick, the ability in the run and the pass, some of the production … that's going to be hard to match for anybody," Coen said. "What I always appreciated about C-Rod (Rodriguez) has been his rushing yards over expected and his yards after contact. Those are the two areas you look at where you say, 'Did you get more than what the play was blocked for?' and 'Did you make people miss?'

"There are different ways to make people miss. How do you gain yards? There are a lot of different ways to skin that cat. Ultimately for me, and for the type of style a team want to be – to be able to punch you in the mouth and get those hard yards … getting a guy like Chris to complement that room … we're just trying to add good football players in there."

The Jaguars rushed for 115.1 yards per game in 2025 after rushing for 101.7 per game in 2024. Key to success is getting every possible yard from every carry – including yards that may not initially seem possible.

"I look at personally rushing yards over expected and yards after contact," Coen said. "It's like, 'What are you doing outside of what we're blocking and what does that look like?' Guys that get more than what's there, I can't coach that."

"I don't care how you do it, I just care that you do it because I can't coach it. When you have and do things that I can't coach on a consistent level, to me that's important for players because it's like, 'Dude, I can't coach you to do that.'

"If the run is blocked for eight yards and we get eight yards, it's like, 'I need more. I want to see more.''

QUOTABLE

• Coen on the Jaguars' approach entering 2026 after a 13-4 AFC South Championship season in 2025: "There's nothing that we're defending. We're attacking everything that we're doing. That's the mindset and the mentality. We could theoretically get better as a football team and not win 13 games. That's something we have to be prepared for and have to understand. If we live in the results of last year, this won't be a fun process and we won't like what we see. I believe that. Everything we attack from this offseason moving forward as we go into this new regular season … it's all brand new. There are new players, new coaches, new relationships and communication – new ways we need to operate. If we attack it the same way as last year and we say, 'We already made that relationship,' or, 'We already had that connection,' that's going to be a different connection on this team because every team is different."