During his rookie NFL season, running back Tank Bigsby played 12 percent of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ offensive snaps.

Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor doesn’t think that was enough, and he’s not blaming Bigsby for his lack of playing time in 2023. Taylor said he had regrets over how Jacksonville used Bigsby during his rookie season.

“We would have liked to say we’d get more usage, more opportunity for Tank as the season went,” Taylor said on Tuesday. “Looking back, there’s a lot of things that we could have probably done better obviously. The goal’s not to go 9-8, especially each year we’ve done that, so you look at a lot of things. You try to be as critical of everything that you can be, and how do we utilize every single player available to us on game day.

“I think there’s things that Tank could have provided that we maybe didn’t give him opportunities to. Or maybe we’re quick to give Travis (Etienne) another rep on something that probably Tank could have done well for us. But you live, you learn, you grow from it. You adapt moving forward. And I think Tank’s in a great head space in terms of where he goes into Year 2, and we’re looking to get the most out of him as well.”

Bigsby led Auburn in rushing in each of his three seasons on the Plains. He completed his career for the Tigers with 2,903 yards and 25 touchdowns on 540 rushing attempts and 448 yards on 62 receptions – and he had a different offensive coordinator annually plus two head coaches and two interim head coaches.

“This is my second year with the same offense,” Bigsby told WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, “and I’m so happy that I get to go in the same offense because in college, it was just a challenge. … Now I got the same offense and the same playbook and the same plays, same coaches I can grow from and continue to get better at, so I’m ready for it. …

“I tell myself all the time: You continue to study, you continue to grow and you don’t get complacent. I live by those three things.”

Jacksonville has 14 players on its roster who are preparing for their second NFL seasons, including Bigsby and five other offensive players. Taylor said a season of experience makes a big difference.

“You see the way they’re practicing now,” Taylor said. “This time last year, they’re swimming. … You’re trying to figure everything out. How does the NFL work? How does this practice pace move? What’s the offense look like? What’s my role on this particular play? To where now in Year 2, they know it. They know their split, they know their alignment, they know their adjustment. They’re able to play a lot faster so you see a little bit more of that skill set you saw when they were in Year 4, Year 5 of college and they understood the system inside and out. You see a lot of that.

“Now the game reps are invaluable, so some guys got a lot of that, some guys didn’t get as much of that. But the expectation, the confidence that they carry on the practice field, you’re hoping that that extends over to the game field whenever the time comes for that.”

Bigsby ran for 132 yards and two touchdowns on 50 carries and caught one pass for 6 yards as a rookie.

Travis Etienne ran for 1,008 yards and 11 touchdowns on 267 carries and caught 58 passes for 476 yards and one touchdown as he played 73 percent of Jacksonville’s offensive snaps.

Including Wednesday’s practice, the Jaguars have nine more workouts remaining on their offseason schedule before breaking until training camp.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.