A report on Sunday indicated that the Jaguars removed the remaining guarantees on running back Leonard Fournette’s rookie deal as a result of the 2017 first-round pick’s suspension for leaving the bench to join a fight during a game against the Bills.
Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone was asked about that report at a Monday press conference and Marrone confirmed, via Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com, that the team made the move. Fournette can challenge the move, which affects the $7.1 million salary he’s set to make over the next two seasons.
If the guarantees are stripped from that money, the Jaguars would be able to cut Fournette with no financial repercussions. A likelier avenue to pursue would likely be an attempt to trade him to another team in hope of acquiring some draft compensation they can use toward building a better team than the one that was on the field in 2018.
Given that Fournette was chastised by executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin at the end of an injury-plagued season marked by limited on-field production, taking one of those two routes and removing Fournette from the roster seems like a real possibility.