Fournette Good Fit With Arians
September 8th, 2020
Background.
When the Bucs signed running back Leonard Fournette last week, it led many to ask why a young, healthy, productive back was thrown to the ditch by a team that really needed his services.
The easy answer is that the Jags are Tanking for Trevor [Lawrence], though various parties with the Jags vehemently deny this.
Of course they deny it. What team would come out and say they are trying to lose every game in order to get Trevor Lawrence (and maybe Dabo Swinney, too)?
Underneath the obvious was an ugly murmur that Fournette was a locker room cancer. Again, how else to logically explain getting rid of Fournette if a team claims it isn’t tanking?
So Albert Breer of SI.com decided to do some digging. Basically, Breer found out that Fournette playing for a couple of hard@sses like former Jags president of football operations Tom Coughlin and coach Doug Marrone was like mixing oil and water.
Fournette’s story, while we’re here, is a great cautionary tale on fit. And really this story starts with Fournette as a 15-year-old—which is around the age he became a local icon of sorts in New Orleans.
From that point forward, he was treated as if he was the LeBron James of football (I actually went to see him play back then, on the advice of ex-Patriot and LSU star Kevin Faulk) by the people around him. By the time NFL teams had started to dig into who Fournette was, there was no secret to it. Rumors of special treatment at LSU were out there (example: He didn’t have to stay at the team hotel with the rest of the players the night before games), as was the rep he’d grown, and maybe it was a result of all this, as someone who didn’t deal well with authority. Ex-Jacksonville EVP Tom Coughlin was warned how Fournette might not be a match for the program he and Marrone were planning to build. Then, after a great first year, the chickens came home to roost. He could be moody and grumpy, and mostly because he was never going to fit into a my-way-or-the-highway environment. Those who did have a good relationship with him were the ones who met him halfway. Others thought Fournette was more enamored of the things that football afforded him than of the game itself. And things got to the point last year where he was late and would fall asleep in meetings, so the writing was on the wall on this one. Now, it’s possible things are a lot different in Tampa. Bruce Arians has always been able to handle egos, and the locker room there is very strong (the Jaguars did believe losing leaders like Marcedes Lewis, Paul Posluszny and Chris Ivory after his first year affected Fournette’s behavior). And even if Fournette’s style is a little dated, his talent is undeniable. For all those reasons, I can see why Tampa took a flier. But given the history, it’s not hard to see where things went wrong in Jacksonville—or why he’s gone.
So basically, it sounds like Fournette just didn’t mesh with Coughlin’s tough guy Army drill sergeant routine.
(If anyone read the book “Band of Brothers” by Stephen Ambrose, which the HBO miniseries of the same name was based upon, Coughlin’s act in Jacksonville sounded like Easy Company commander Capt. Herbert Sobel. In the book, Sobel was labeled by his men as a “chickensh!t” for all his Mickey Mouse rules and being a petty and vindictive man, though an excellent trainer of paratroopers. As a result, Sobel was not respected by his men. It really sounds like Coughlin used “Band of Brothers” as a guide on how to run the Jags. Problem was, the Jags were not preparing to fight the Nazis, jump into France on D-Day or survive a brutal winter with limited supplies while being surrounded at the Battle of the Bulge.)
Fournette is clearly happy coming to the Bucs, if you have seen his social media postings over the weekend, including already posing with Tom Brady as he wore a huge smile on his face. Fournette wanted to come to the Bucs.
Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians is well known for being a hard@ss on the practice field and the game field, but also for being a softie away from the chalked lines.
From the sounds of it, that seems to fit Fournette just fine.
September 8th, 2020 at 10:08 am
Fournette will be our starting RB by week 5, Book it!!!
September 8th, 2020 at 10:10 am
Hope it works with Fournette….
Giants won SB’s and Jags went to AFC Championship under Coughlin
We’ll see
September 8th, 2020 at 10:10 am
He strikes me as in love with being a “baller” not with being the best football player he can be. As a support person, it’s a good move. If we are depending on him to be RB 1, then it’s a bad move. He is soft and entitled, not a leader.
September 8th, 2020 at 10:13 am
This signing should also push Rojo.
September 8th, 2020 at 10:15 am
It’s amazing how many coaches throw away talented players based on personality or fit. Bucs are finally on the other end of these transactions for a change.
September 8th, 2020 at 10:19 am
Pablo Wants to know if Leonard Fournette paid Ronald Jones to get number 27 from him?
September 8th, 2020 at 10:24 am
hey joe, i got a question for ya, how many touches, do you expect fournette to get out the gate, week one against the saint’s?
September 8th, 2020 at 10:26 am
How many good players has the Bucs’ franchise tossed away because (bad) coaches didn’t like them, couldn’t get along with them or the players didn’t fit their beloved “schemes?”
No, Joe isn’t counting malcontent DeSean Jackson or Swaggy Baker. Those guys were bad eggs who destroyed the locker room and haven’t done squat in the NFL in years.
September 8th, 2020 at 10:27 am
A dozen, max.
September 8th, 2020 at 10:46 am
Joe……are you in the league yet?
September 8th, 2020 at 10:47 am
No, Joe isn’t counting malcontent DeSean Jackson or Swaggy Baker. Those guys were bad eggs who destroyed the locker room and haven’t done squat in the NFL in years.
……..
Djax didn’t even get drafted in either of my FF leagues
September 8th, 2020 at 10:52 am
Hey sobel we salute the rank not the person
September 8th, 2020 at 10:54 am
thanx joe, i sure hope he makes the most of em
September 8th, 2020 at 11:12 am
Joe you crazy Jackson did his job here. The QB didn’t do his go look at the film he stayed wide open. The QB either missed him in the read or when he did see him flat out missed. And save the excuses because our backup QB had no problem hitting him and everyone else. He had that offense clicking and it showed.
September 8th, 2020 at 11:23 am
When you can work in a Band of Brothers reference in a Bucs story, you know the Joes are some talented mothers!
September 8th, 2020 at 11:25 am
Lenny will not start at all unless RoJo is injured, and he will spell RoJo from time to time but mostly be third fiddle to RoJo and Shady. Jeebstradamus hath spoken.
September 8th, 2020 at 11:28 am
As someone who lives in New Orleans, I can attest to what Breer state’s. He really was the “Lebron James of football” around here since he was a sophomore in HS at the latest. I remember people telling me I had to go watch this kid as a freshman and him being compared to LeBron. Then you add in what LSU paid him (Bama was also in on this high stakes game). It all kinda makes sense.
September 8th, 2020 at 11:36 am
🙂
“Captain Sobel, we salute the rank, not the man.”
Great line from the series.
Joe wasn’t aware Jackson was signed to blow up the locker room and help create chaos and mayhem and try to beat up assistant coaches and blow off meetings while playing cards in the locker room. That’s an interesting clause in his contract then, no?
September 8th, 2020 at 11:37 am
This reminds me of when the Cardinals drafted the Honey Badger. He said he never felt respected until Arians told him about the trouble he got into as a youngster too and they bonded over that. Arians the millennial whisperer.
He’ll probably be a good enough locker room guy as long as we have Brady and have a chance at the Super Bowl
September 8th, 2020 at 11:40 am
Excellent point. And Honey Badger wanted to come here because of Arians but the Bucs didn’t have the cash.
September 8th, 2020 at 11:48 am
I got this guy starting by midseason. Maybe even sooner. Like him or not, he is a straight out baller who finds holes when there are none and can slip thru the smallest ones. Man is a beast..period. Watch him gather a thousand yards almost effortlessly. Bucs lucked up on a good one here.
September 8th, 2020 at 12:04 pm
Joe like I said he did his job on the field!!!! The locker room split on the QB we all know this.
September 8th, 2020 at 12:17 pm
I like Rojo, but I bet if/or when he misses a block & Brady gets sacked you will find McCoy or Fournette in there on the next play.
September 8th, 2020 at 12:20 pm
I think there will be room for Rojo, McCoy and Fournette to carve a piece of the RB plays.
Just glad to have insurance if one is injured or if Rojo does not live up to expectations.
September 8th, 2020 at 12:21 pm
BA’s “tough love” approach may just as well have helped RoJo to get motivated and rise up to his promise. I have not seen enough to go on so I am making no predictions. I will intensely watch the competition for starter between Fournette and RoJo to see who emerges by mid season.
By the way, I will also watch to see (hopefully, for the next two or three years) how BA handles Josh Rosen. Let’s see if the old “quarterback whisperer” can do some his magic and rehabilitate Rosen.
September 8th, 2020 at 12:22 pm
Formerly Tampa 2 says. “I like Rojo, but I bet if/or when he misses a block & Brady gets sacked you will find McCoy or Fournette in there on the next play.”
Fournette stats on blocking is not great either. McCoy is the best all around runner. Even at his age, he did well running the ball last season. He was benched due to his fumbles.
September 8th, 2020 at 12:30 pm
BOTH Tom Coughlin and Marone are Pricks, with a capital P!
Fournett will be just fine here in Tampa, reunited with his friend and ex teammate Devin White.
No worries at all
September 8th, 2020 at 12:51 pm
If he’s big on the lifestyle, then it’s a no brainer to ball out and get paid like CMac. The money is there if he’s willing to work for it. This was perfect timing to sign Fournette. I expect him to dominate by week 3 if he gets his touches.
Whatever his motivation may be, feed him as much as you can and utilize his 1 year and we’ll see what happens in the off season.
September 8th, 2020 at 12:52 pm
@Pablo,
Fournette is wearing #28 this year.
September 8th, 2020 at 1:04 pm
All Rojo needs is half a crack in the Ol and he’ll be off for a big gain .. he had a few called back for penalties last year but most of the time he was stuffed at the LOS or in the backfield! With a real passing attack, not stat attack, both passing and running game will have an easier go of it !
September 8th, 2020 at 4:37 pm
This dudes got a clean slate as far as I’m concerned. Arians is easily our best coach since Gruden and is already (pitiful!) the fourth best coach in Buc history. I think that this is going to work out well.