Trevor Lawrence opens up on reuniting with former Clemson teammate Travis Etienne in NFL

From 2018-20, Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne built quite a connection as teammates at Clemson. Then, they both became first-round picks of the Jacksonville Jaguars — Lawrence at No. 1 overall and Etienne at No. 25 overall — in the 2021 NFL Draft.

That bond carried over to the NFL, even after Etienne missed his rookie season with a torn Achilles. Lawrence detailed a few qualities that makes Etienne a great teammate and illustrated why it’s been great to play together again.

“He’s super unselfish,” Lawrence said on The Journey podcast with Darien Rencher, who also played at Clemson from 2016-21. “There’s been times we’ve been on the goal and I’ve done it a ton of times in college. Pull the ball, take a touchdown from them because I see something. There really is a lot of guys that would be, like, pissed that I took their touchdown. Whether it’s not necessarily a rookie deal, but, like, bonuses are just stats or whatever, guys want that. And he’s just never that way.

“I’ll be like, ‘Sorry, dude.’ And he’s just like, ‘I don’t care, I was about to get smacked.’ That’s just how he is. He’s always been cool like that. So it’s been fun to get to play with him.”

Etienne didn’t look like someone who missed a year, though. He ran for 1,125 yards and five touchdowns on the ground and totaled 316 receiving yards, as well. In addition to being a great teammate, Lawrence said Etienne’s build is also unique. At 5-foot-10 and 210 pounds, he doesn’t look like a Derrick Henry type running back — big and strong with the ability to literally run people over. Yet he still manages to evade tacklers with ease.

That’s what’s “impressive” about him, Lawrence said.

“You see him and he doesn’t necessarily like the biggest guy, but I mean his legs are huge when you see him up close,” Lawrence said. “And he breaks so many tackles, and he makes it look easy. I think that’s the one thing. You see guys that you know are fast but it looks like they’re running super hard. He never looks like he’s running. Guys will just fall off of them that are twice his size. Stuff like that is impressive when you see him play. I think that’s a cool thing about his game.

“And, obviously, he had the injury our rookie year, which was just crazy, kind of like a fluke, freak thing. But he’s like never — knock on wood — never really hurt. He stays so healthy and just like super tough. That was what was cool to see guys that didn’t know him that play with him.”