There is no one player more important than the team. The Buccaneers and their starters would be wise to learn this lesson.
It should not be news to anyone that the Buccaneers are struggling greatly on offense. The lack of any production on the ground and in the red zone has led to a dramatic decrease in how effective the team has been as a whole.
Part of this issue lies with personnel. The Bucs have been left short handed due to various injuries, but they also aren’t doing themselves any favors with who they choose to put on the field.
Leonard Fournette is one such starter that shouldn’t get as many reps as he does. Rachaad White has been much better in every aspect of the positions, yet Byron Leftwich continues to leave the inferior veteran running back on the field for the majority of games.
White should get to play starting reps based on what we have seen through the first nine games. The sporadic series that White gets aren’t cutting it, although some see it through a different lens.
Leonard Fournette ‘extremely frustrated’ at being replaced, CBS reports https://t.co/gRSLTDNOQX
— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) November 8, 2022
Apparently, Leonard Fournette was not all that happy that Rachaad White was on the field for a vital series instead of himself.
Great.
The running game is embarrassingly bad, the Bucs can’t score touchdowns to save their lives, and Fournette is worried that a better, more effective, younger, running back is on the field for a short stretch instead of him.
No way this ends up going poorly.
Fournette needs to learn the important lesson that the individual matters less than the team. Teams like the Buccaneers that struggle on the ground need to be better at riding the hot hand, and Fournette clearly isn’t that guy as of now (although that can absolutely change, as we have seen).
In the grand scheme of things, this one series changed very little for Fournette, yet this outburst is not a good look for a guy that isn’t even playing well.
A change needs to come in the running back room anyway. Something tells us the starter isn’t going to take the change well when it comes.
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