Last August, the Jaguars surprisingly parted ways with running back Leonard Fournette, the fourth overall pick in the 2017 draft. Even though Fournette landed on his feet, it took him some time to get his head around the fact that the Jaguars showed him the door.
“I think when I got cut, it kind of just set me back to what I used to do,” Fournette recently told Jalen & Jacoby on ESPN, via JoeBucsFan.com. “You know, I had to get my rhythm back. It was bothering me all through the season when I got signed by the Buccaneers. Every day, I’m like, ‘Damn, I really got cut.’ So it was bothering me, too. So I had to just get my mind right, get adjusted. I was still new here, too.”
Fournette almost got cut again last year. After he was a healthy scratch for a Week 14 against the Vikings, coach Bruce Arians told Fournette to stop “pouting.” Arians instructed Fournette to decide whether he’s all in; if he had said anything other than “yes,” the Bucs would have cut Fournette.
It worked out for the Bucs and for Fournette. We went from a team that finished 1-15 to a team that capped the season with the 55th Lombardi Trophy, making a major contribution to the offense, due to the fact that Ronald Jones had a leg injury.