LSU Football: Former Tigers star stands up for Leonard Fournette
By Zach Ragan
Former LSU football star Leonard Fournette was released by the Jacksonville Jaguars this week.
Former LSU football standout Leonard Fournette is looking for a new home in the NFL after being released by the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier this week.
Fournette was selected by the Jaguars with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.
The New Orleans native had a tremendous career at LSU, rushing for 3,830 yards in 31 career games. Fournette also had a ridiculous 40 career rushing touchdowns as a Tiger.
I was a bit surprised by Jacksonville’s decision to release Fournette. The former LSU star didn’t necessarily have a seamless transition to the NFL, thanks to some injury and suspension issues, but he was coming off a career year in 2019 (1,152 rushing yards).
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one that felt strongly about the Jaguars’ decision. Former LSU defensive lineman Booger McFarland, who works for ESPN, questioned Jacksonville’s decision this week.
Former LSU football star stands up for Fournette
McFarland said on Monday that he was “shocked” at Fournette’s release.
“There’s something going within that Jacksonville front office between them and Fournette. I get it. They want to move on, but they’re getting rid of talent,” said McFarland (via 247Sports). “Whether that’s smart or not, I don’t know…in the National Football League, you have to have talent to win”.
Fournette definitely makes Jacksonville a better team. This certainly appears to be a situation where the team is mostly focused on the financial aspect of the roster (the team will save a little $4 million, depending on the outcome of Fournette’s grievance).
Running backs have been devalued in recent years and many teams believe they can just trot anyone out there.
I think that way of thinking is misguided. Certain players, like Fournette, have talent that can’t be replaced with a “plug n play” guy.
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Jacksonville will likely regret this decision. And whichever team ends up signing Fournette will be getting a player with the talent to be one of the best running backs in the league.
Hopefully whoever signs him will be on Jacksonville’s schedule. It would be fun to watch the former Tiger get some revenge.