The most interesting roster question on the Jacksonville Jaguars after the 2026 NFL Draft is not at quarterback, where Trevor Lawrence remains the franchise. It is not at edge rusher, where the team spent the No. 5 overall pick on Penn State's Abdul Carter. It is at running back, and the reason it is interesting is that the most impressive player on the field at the team's three-day rookie minicamp this weekend was not on the team's draft board ten days ago.
J'Mari Taylor — a 5'10", 213-pound running back who transferred to Virginia for the 2025 season after three years at North Carolina Central — went undrafted on April 26 despite a college career that finished with 1,068 rushing yards, 43 receptions, and 15 total touchdowns in his lone year in the ACC. He led the conference in total touchdowns. Pro Football Focus had him as their 142nd-ranked draft prospect; NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah had him in his "Day 3 talent that will be available undrafted" cluster. The Jaguars signed him on the Saturday of the draft as a priority undrafted free agent. He was the third-highest-bid UDFA the Jaguars signed by guaranteed money — behind only Auburn safety Cam'Ron Jefferson and SMU edge Elijah Roberts.
The reason every reporter at the Jaguars' three-day rookie minicamp left writing about Taylor is the same reason scouts were puzzled when his name didn't come up across the seventh round. Day One, he ran a sub-4.5 forty in conditioning testing — half a tick faster than the 4.54 he had posted at Virginia's pro day in March. Day Two, in 11-on-11 with the second-team offense, he ran an inside-zone read that beat the linebacker stunt cleanly, broke a planted-foot juke at the safety level, and was the first man into the end zone on a 32-yard touchdown run that drew an audible reaction from the secondary group watching on the sideline. The pass-protection rep against a UDFA edge rusher held up. The pass-catching reps — six out-of-the-backfield routes, six completions — were where the room came around.
The Jaguars' running-back depth chart is the wall Taylor is going to run into. Travis Etienne returns for the third year of his second contract as the lead back. Bhayshul Tuten, the team's fifth-round 2025 selection out of Virginia Tech, is locked in as the change-of-pace back. Chris Rodriguez, signed as a UDFA in 2024 and a special-teams contributor through last year's playoff run, has the third spot. LeQuint Allen Jr., the 2025 Day-3 pick out of Syracuse, is the fourth. DeeJay Dallas is the veteran insurance. That is five backs ahead of Taylor on the May 10 depth chart. The Jaguars typically carry four running backs on the active 53-man roster and rotate a fifth in and out of the gameday inactives list. Taylor's path to the 53 is not impossible. It is, in current shape, the steepest climb of any UDFA the Jaguars signed.
The path that exists is the one Tuten took the year before. Tuten was a Day-3 pick whose value to the staff turned into roster certainty by the time training camp closed — special-teams snaps in August, third-down passing-game reps in September, and a defined complementary role by midseason. Taylor's pass-protection grades at Virginia were the highest among ACC running backs (84.1 on PFF, ahead of Boston College's Treshaun Ward and Clemson's Phil Mafah); his pass-catching profile is actually better than Tuten's. If Taylor takes those two ingredients into the August preseason games and produces a clean six-snap series on third-and-medium against an opposing first defense, he is on the 53 in some form.
The other reason to keep an eye on Taylor is the position's economics. Travis Etienne's contract carries a 2027 cap hit of $14.8 million and a non-guaranteed structure that the Jaguars front office will revisit after this season. Bhayshul Tuten's rookie deal is the cheapest in the league at his position. A back like Taylor — UDFA contract, four-year max, $750,000 base salary in year three — is exactly the kind of low-cost find that gives a franchise the flexibility to move on from the high-cap top of the position if the right alternative emerges in front of it. Liam Coen, the team's second-year head coach, told reporters Sunday morning that Taylor's three days at the facility were "the kind of work you remember in August." The roster math will eventually tell us whether the staff remembers it long enough.
Taylor was assigned No. 39 for minicamp. The Jaguars open OTAs in two weeks on May 24, with mandatory minicamp running June 9-11. Etienne, Tuten, and the other established backs will participate in the OTA window for the first time; Taylor will run with the third team. The first head-to-head test against an actually-drafted back is roughly six weeks away. Until then, the open question on the depth chart is the same one Daniel Jeremiah was answering on a Day 3 mailbag two weeks ago: how did this guy fall out of the seventh round?