NFL
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sign RB Leonard Fournette
Facts to know, top takeaways, and the future outlook of Leonard Fournette with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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The Jacksonville Jaguars released former fourth overall pick RB Leonard Fournette on Monday and he quickly found a new home, also in Florida, as he joined the renovated Bucs roster on a one-year deal worth up to $3.5M that includes a $2.0M base salary with another $1.5M attached as incentives. He joins a backfield that already had recent second round pick Ronald Jones, the expected starter, and the still-shifty Shady McCoy, who was also signed over the last couple weeks. Tampa Bay is entering the season with rare Super Bowl expectations after signing Tom Brady this offseason who now has an extremely talented backfield partner in the form of the 6’0″, 230lb Fournette.
RB Leonard Fournette has an agreement in principle to join Buccaneers. (via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/QofyuKp9wB
— NFL (@NFL) September 3, 2020
*Player grades key: 2019 = Overall production in 2019, Future = Most likely highest grade in a future season
Starting this offseason, Tampa Bay was considering whether or not to franchise tag Jameis Winston, the first player to ever throw 30 TD & 30 INT in the same season. However, a lot has changed since then as Tampa Bay landed Tom Brady, acquired Rob Gronkowski, and further enhanced their roster with the addition of Leonard Fournette. These group of skill players has to be the best group Brady’s ever played with when considering the inherited collection of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, OJ Howard, and Cameron Brate. It’ll be interesting to see how the 43-year-old will perform with these extremely talented weapons as he tries to adjust to a new system in a shortened offseason.
It seems like a long time ago since scouts and evaluators were considering Fournette the best NFL Running Back prospect since Adrian Peterson with his rare size-speed combo. Even though he put up a career-high 1,674 yards from scrimmage last year, the 25-year-old was released by Jacksonville as they continue to get rid of about every single player on their AFC Championship roster just a few years ago. Fournette’s stock has fallen around the league as no team was interested in picking up his $4.2M salary for 2020. Now his role will be reduced to likely just rushing downs as a between-the-tackles bruiser where his snaps will be limited due to the presence of RoJo and McCoy.
The new Buccaneer won’t be expected to do much in his first year in Tampa as Head Coach Bruce Arians explained. However, his stay in northern Florida could last beyond this season as a 1-2 punch alongside Jones, who’s far from a proven NFL workhorse anyways. The talent is still there for Fournette, and the production has been impressive despite a lackluster Offensive Line in Jacksonville. He reached free agency very late in the process when most teams were set at the RB position and confident in their rookies. He could use this as a transition year before claiming a bigger role on a new team next year.
Tampa Bay has a great RB room now with the aforementioned trifecta and Brady has always been supported by a well-established run game during his days in New England. Ronald Jones is the x-factor here as the 2018 38th overall pick has yet to establish himself in the league, but has all the tools to be Tampa Bay’s RB of the future. The signing of Fournette provides premium insurance if Jones struggles or gets injured again like he did as a rookie, and further proves the Bucs are going all-in on capitalizing while the GOAT calls Tampa Bay home.
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