Former Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette officially became a free-agent Tuesday after going through the waiver wire unclaimed. However, that didn’t mean several teams weren’t interested in his services despite the season being less than two weeks away.
Per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, there are several teams who are indeed interested in Fournette and one of them are in the same state as the Jags.
Several teams are making a push to sign Leonard Fournette and sources say the #Buccaneers are one of them. Stay tuned.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) September 2, 2020
This comes as no surprise as we listed the Tampa Bay Bucs as a suitor earlier in the week. While they will likely utilize a pass-heavy offense under Bruce Arians, Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and company, the Bucs have been active on the running backs market and their desire for rushers has been clear. Additionally, he proved to be a solid pass-catcher in 2019, garnering 522 receiving yards (ranked fifth among RBs) last season.
The Jags stunned the NFL community Monday by waiving the fourth-year tailback. While they did try to trade him around the draft period and showed their hand, moving on from a player two weeks before the season isn’t ideal. That said, the team decided to pull the trigger late as Doug Marrone told the media that the staff really liked what they saw out of the Jags’ other tailbacks in practice.
“Well, I think what happened was I tried to challenge everyone, coaches and scouts, to look at what we’ve been doing in practice. Not knowing how the players are going to come back, not knowing who we had, not having a lot of experience to them and that we’d have to make good decisions on what’s best for the team. Let’s not go ahead and say ‘well, because this player did this before, we’ll get the same type of results’,” Marrone said Monday.
“Really we’ve just tried to take the team and put the best team together from what we’ve seen in our practices. At the end of the day, I felt that was the best decision for our team and think it gives us the best opportunity with the skill sets that we have with the other players in there. I just felt that’s what’s best for the team. And doing it now, we’ve exhausted all trade opportunities and weren’t able to get anything there so I just felt we can now work on the team, the plan, and getting ready for the season.”
The other teams who are interested in Fournette aren’t known at the moment, but the Bucs definitely should have strong competition for his services. At just 25-years-of-age, his career could certainly take off with the right team, which is why many fans of the NFL will be monitoring him closely.