Jaguars release Leonard Fournette, affirming an all-time draft blunder
The Jaguars have released running back Leonard Fournette, a former first-round pick.
Early in the 2020 offseason, there were rumors that the Jacksonville Jaguars were looking to trade running back Leonard Fournette, the No. 4 overall pick from the 2017 NFL Draft. They declined his fifth-year option and it was apparent that his future with the team wasn’t going to last much longer.
As it turns out, there was no trade partner to be found. And on Monday, the team released Fournette. After three seasons with the team that spent a top-five pick on the former LSU running back, he’s available on the open market.
Fournette struggled to stay on the field in his first two seasons, playing only 21 games over that span. Moreover, he struggled to be effective when on the field, averaging just 3.7 yards per carry, though he did score 14 rushing touchdowns. But though he played in 15 games and rushed for 1,152 yards and three scores in 2019, his behavior became a distraction, including a one-game suspension for on-field conduct.
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If a team is going to take a running back in the first round, they want him to be a game-changing offensive presence. Fournette was definitively not that. And that fact is something that hangs over the Jaguars like a dark shadow.
Drafting Leonard Fournette at No. 4 overall is an all-time blunder by the Jaguars.
When people think about the missteps of the 2017 NFL Draft at large, most are first going to look at the Bears trading up from No. 3 to No. 2 and selecting quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. And that’s fair. However, the Jaguars taking Leonard Fournette just two picks later might’ve been the worst offense in that class.
That, of course, starts with the valuation of running backs in the modern NFL, especially ones who aren’t known for their pass-catching, a mold that Fournette fit into. If a team is going to take a running back in the first round, they need two things: an established offensive line and, more importantly, stability at quarterback so that the back can be a weapon in support.
At the time, the Jags had Blake Bortles at quarterback still. He was entering his fourth season in the NFL, meaning that everyone except for Jacksonville could see by that point that the team did not have a franchise quarterback. Yet, they continued to double down on him, passing on Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson to take Fournette.
Furthermore, if they were set on taking a running back, Christian McCaffrey was also taken No. 8 overall. There is some hindsight involved there as many questioned the Stanford product at the time for his durability but, in terms of modern running backs and their versatility, CMC was undeniably of that ilk in college as he has been in the pros.
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As the Jaguars are tearing down their roster to rebuild from the ground up, with releasing Leonard Fournette being only the latest example, it’s hard not to look at the addition of the running back as a catalyst for what’s happened. It may always be outshined by Trubisky to the Bears but Jacksonville selecting Fournette in 2017 will continue to haunt the franchise even though the back’s now gone.