Jacksonville Jaguars: Leonard Fournette the victim of offensive identity

Fournette is important to the 2019 Jaguars offense

The Jaguars fired Hackett and hired John DeFilippo to run the Jacksonville offense. Nick Foles is the new face of the franchise at quarterback. Foles, however, was injured in the first quarter of the first game in 2019.

Rookie Gardner Minshew is leading the team in Foles’ absence. Minshew is a product of the air raid offense under Mike Leach. Should DeFilippo utilize Minshew’s skill set or plug him into the Foles playbook?

Minshew has thrown quite of few deep passes with uncanny accuracy. Fournette has yet to get going, despite DeFilippo’s words. Oehser reported the following from training camp concerning the importance of getting the ball to Fournette, per Jaguars.com:

"“He has caught numerous balls each day in practice,” DeFilippo said. “I don’t want to say it’s going to be a huge piece of our offense, but that’s a credit to Leonard because we’re trying to find different, unique ways to get him the football – not just handing it to him.”"

Through three games, Fournette has carried the ball 43 times for 179 yards. His longest run of the year was in game three for 69 yards. So far, he has caught 14 passes for 94 yards. He has not scored a touchdown this season.

Evidently, the Jaguars are no longer a true power run offense. Perhaps they have decided to embrace the west coast scheme? Has Minshew’s success caused the Jaguars to move towards the fast-paced, quick tempo of the air raid offense?

Jacksonville has to determine their identity as an offense. It should not be determined by who is on the field. Winning organizations know who they are and what they want to do with the ball.