JACKSONVILLE – The Jaguars are ready for the bye week.

The Jaguars enter their Week 7 bye with a 4-2 record with a two-game lead in the AFC South, having lost to their division rival Houston Texans, 34-31, at Wembley Stadium in London this past Sunday. Jaguars running Chris Rodriguez Jr. and safety Eric Murray spoke to the media Tuesday.

A look at Tuesday around the Jaguars:

1.The running game has improved and appears to still be improving.

The Jaguars, after focusing heavily on the area throughout this past offseason, enter the bye 14^th in the NFL in rushing at 112.8 yards per game after ranking 20^th in the area last season. More important is that the Jaguars have been more efficient in 2026 with Rodriguez and second-year veteran Bhayshul Tuten.

A major reason: The play of an offensive line.

"It starts up front, those guys up there getting the right points and then got to get our reads as a running back," Rodriguez said Tuesday.

Rookie guard Emmanuel Pregnon, center Robert Hainsey and guard Ezra Cleveland have played solidly on the interior. Walker Little started at left tackle for Anton Harrison (knee) against the Texans, with Cole Van Lanen starting at right tackle.

"What we've excelled at, I feel, is a new line of scrimmage," Rodriguez said. "We say that from the O-lineman standpoint. The best runs are when you can get those guys off the ball and create a second line of scrimmage. I feel like we have done a pretty good job of that."

Rodriguez, who rushed for 55 yards on 11 carries against the Texans, has rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns on 39 carries this season. Tuten, the starter in each of the first six games, rushed for 39 yards on 12 carries against the Texans and leads the Jaguars with 398 yards and two touchdowns on 94 carries.

"I feel like as a running back group, we could be so much better," Rodriguez said. "Going into this bye week, we are going to have to try to focus on a few things, myself included – a bunch of things I need to focus on, but just picking a few. I pride myself in getting what's blocked first and then whatever happens after that happens.

"At the end of the day, we've been successful because of those guys up front."

And while the Jaguars have been improved in this area, Rodriguez the best in this vein may be yet to come.

"It's there," he said. "Just watch the film. It's there. There have been plenty of times where me and Bhayshul have talked and we're like, 'Man, if we just slowed down a little bit or had a bit more patience, or if we would have read it out all the way through the guy and not just reading our first read, but our second read, man, we'll have so many explosives.'

"There are so many yards that we left out there in this past game. It's over, we can't get them back, but the only thing we can do is learn from it and move on."

2.The Jaguars have allowed an average 320 passing yards a game over the last three weeks, ranking 30^th in the NFL in passing yards allowed at 273.8 yards per game for the season. Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud passed for three touchdowns against the Jaguars Sunday, also connecting on pass plays of 34, 42 and 50 yards – "explosive" plays that led to 17 Texans points.

"I would say the biggest thing would be communication," Murray said. "In terms of just a lot of moving parts, with the people that are playing. Sometimes lack of time on task with certain people, it can get the best of you."

Murray missed Week 5 against the Philadelphia Eagles and parts of a Week 4 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals with a concussion, and the Jaguars have also dealt with injuries at cornerback and elsewhere on the safety depth chart. Cornerback Montaric Brown has missed two of the last three games with a hamstring injury and did not play against Houston.

"Just being on the field together, watching more tape together, simplifying the asks that we're being asked to do during the week, so those reps are more intentional and more concentrated and those looks are more dialed in," Murray said.