Fournette returns from an ankle injury to play against the Raiders
Jumping right back into the swing of things, Fournette carried 11 times for 50 yards in Las Vegas Sunday. His splash of carries can be attributed to his new role on the team. Greg Auman of The Athletic tweeted that Fournette has taken over the role of “nickel running back” from Shady McCoy.
Arians says Leonard Fournette is now his "nickel" running back, playing in hurry-up and obvious passing situations, and that played a part in him getting more snaps in Sunday's win. Took that role from LeSean McCoy.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) October 26, 2020
Good news
Glad to see it; there’s nothing worse than bringing in what is supposed to be a key piece to the puzzle and those players riding the pine. If they are meant to contribute when acquired, then they should be given that chance. Fournette, as well as Jones, are very talented backs, and they both need to be on the field as much as possible. Drafted by the Jaguars, he produced nicely in his rookie season, rushing for over a thousand yards and scoring 9 touchdowns. What may have caught Arians and Licht’s attention, though, was his stats from last season. Fournette was targeted a hundred times, snagging 76 of them for 522 yards receiving, and he added to that, by rushing for 1152 yards. Now, you can see why they pulled the trigger on the former Jag.
Distributing the football
By now handing him the role of being in there on obvious passing situations, it should play to his skill set and help our offense become more versatile and unpredictable. We really haven’t seen much yet of Fournette catching passes. One thing that you can be sure of is that Brady will get him the ball. Brady may be the best ever at utilizing all his available weapons and distributing the ball to them. Miller is outproducing most of the receivers taken rounds ahead of him. Taylor has two touchdowns in his rookie season. If you have talent, Brady will find you. So stay tuned. There’s more to come. Go Bucs!!