Leonard Fournette: How a player’s heart saved the Buccaneers
By Rob Leeds
The Buccaneers gave Leonard Fournette an out. He stuck it out, and now, they’re champions.
Leonard Fournette and the Buccaneers are Super Bowl champions. The story is already one of the greatest in NFL history, but this story was not always a fairytale. The Bucs and Fournette experienced plenty of adversity on their path to a boat parade through the waterways of Tampa.
Fournette was an exciting addition at the start of the season. The pairing of Ronald Jones and Fournette was going to be one of the best duos in the NFL, and the newcomer flashed plenty of big-play ability upon his arrival.
After a sunny start to the season, Fournette fell off his impressive pace. Fournette’s vision became a question, and the run game was only firing on all cylinders when Jones was on the field. Fournette was better in short-yardage situations, but Jones was always the back with the better potential to break off huge runs when it mattered most.
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While it looked like all was sunny between everyone in Tampa, the situation was starting to deteriorate. Fournette was a former first-round pick and a consistent 1,000+ yard rusher in Jacksonville, yet he was only getting the ball during Jones’ rest.
Fournette and the Buccaneers reached a crossroad
According to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, Fournette’s displeasure with his limited use reached a near-breaking point when he met with Bruce Arians after being inactive for the game versus the Vikings. Arians gave Fournette an out, but little did he know, this offer could have stopped the Buccaneers’ playoff hopes in their tracks.
Fournette decided to remain with the team, and we all saw how that played out. During the playoffs, Fournette was an unstoppable force. Brady had his most consistent passing option out of the backfield all season. The run game was consistently generating over four yards per carry, and Fournette flashed talented that we haven’t seen yet in his career. This is the player that we all expected to see when he was drafted fourth overall in 2017.
With Fournette in the lead role, the offense reached a level that we hadn’t seen all season. This was the perfect time to step it up offensively, and Fournette’s role in this turnaround can’t be ignored.
Fournette had a chance to leave. In fact, he was likely justified to leave. Had the Bucs cut him, Fournette would have had the opportunity to sign with another playoff contender that was in greater need of a running back. Instead of jumping ship, Fournette stayed strong and gave the Buccaneers his everything, and the rest is history.
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This is why this Buccaneer team is special. The buy-in from top to bottom was unlike anything else in the NFL, and those who bought in were rewarded. Fournette didn’t have the best regular season, but he has made a name for himself forever in Tampa, and this shouldn’t be the last we see of Playoff Lenny in pewter and red.
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