No NFL player will ever be successful without supreme confidence. Which means that pretty much every NFL player is supremely confident. Which means that not every player is going to fulfill the promise of that supreme confidence.
Regardless, it’s noteworthy when new NFL players full of supreme confidence arrive at the next level and begin to issue over-the-top proclamations. Sometimes, like when Randy Moss promised to “rip up” the NFL, it happens. Other times, it doesn’t.
In Jacksonville, fourth overall pick Leonard Fournette showed up on Friday with a big proclamation: He wants to deliver championships, plural, for a team that has never even been to the Super Bowl in 20-plus years in the NFL.
“Any player wants that for themselves and their team,” Fournette told reporters. “I didn’t mean to stir anything up, but that is my goal. My whole life, I came from a winning program at LSU. In high school, [too]. I come from a winning foundation. I think it is time to get back on that track. I think that is what Jacksonville needs -- championships. I think I am the guy for the job.”
The fact that Fournette has been chosen to do the job could be bad news for some of the other running backs on the roster. But with Chris Ivory, a 2016 free-agent addition, having a guaranteed salary of $4.5 million in 2017 and with T.J. Yeldon in the third year of a wage-scale deal, they could be keeping all of them -- or maybe trying to trade one of them.
Regardless, the future is Fournette. And the future is now.