“Lenny Shows Up Every Day And Works His Ass Off”
April 14th, 2022
One of Joe’s favorite stats (take note, Todd Bowles) is the Bucs are 14-1 when Leonard “Playoff Lenny” Fournette gets 12 or more carries.
Anyone know the one loss?
Yeah, it’s the last Tampa Bay game, the groin-stomp loss to the Rams in the playoffs.
More important, in those 15 games Fournette has a whopping 236 rushes for 1,133 yards and 17 touchdowns — seventeen! That’s 4.8 yards per carry.
Joe’s been enjoying the latest In The Current feature at Buccaneers.com, the Hard Knocks-style presentation sanitized for anything that makes the team look bad. During a spotlight on the Bucs’ dramatic win in Indianapolis last season, Playoff Lenny notes how cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross got in his head leading up to the game.
Ross told Playoff Lenny, “What about our running back?” referring to all the hype for Colts rushing beast Jonathan Taylor.
The result was Fournette’s most productive game of the season with four touchdowns, three rushing.
The Bucs’ top-dog running back is an emotional guy. He’s ridden extreme highs and lows in his brief Bucs career (benched in December of 2020 and historic postseason production a month later). But in the video feature, Tom Brady emphasizes how Playoff Lenny has earned his ultimate respect for his consistency.
“Lenny is a great leader for us. Lenny shows up every day and works his ass off to get things right,” Brady said. “So, we follow his lead.”
Tristan Wirfs and Mike Evans went on to talk about Fournette rising up at halftime of that Colts game to inspire the team in the locker room. Bucco Bruce Arians said that’s what great teams are about, different leaders stepping up in different weeks.
Wirfs also added that Fournette runs so hard “he makes you want to block your ass off for him.”
It’s a little easier today to see why the Bucs coughed up the $7 million per season for Playoff Lenny’s new contract.
April 14th, 2022 at 12:25 pm
If we can keep that 14-1 ratio this year we will be in great shape
April 14th, 2022 at 12:26 pm
Terrific part of our offense. Just stay healthy.
April 14th, 2022 at 12:52 pm
Just went back and rewatched that game-winning TD against the Colts.
Goosebumps.
Love Lombardi Lenny.
April 14th, 2022 at 1:08 pm
When you think about it, being a former 1st rounder, we got Lenny on a deal in 2020 and he’s been playing up to his draft status since. Jacksonvilles’ mismanagement ended up being a blessing for the Bucs.
April 14th, 2022 at 2:08 pm
Brady is nearly unstoppable with a back like LF. He needs a back that can punish light boxes. Brady’s playoff failures can be traced directly to incompetent running attacks. If you can’t make teams pay for putting seven and eight in coverage, Brady becomes human like most. It’s clear that Brady and LF worked there asses off to connect as a passing threat as well. That has made defenses incredibly indecisive, which is certain death
April 14th, 2022 at 2:19 pm
I Love Lenny, but if we had a back with SPEED, that catches passes, blocks, and runs as hard as Lenny, that would sure be nice!
Backs like Alvin Kamara force other teams to play a full box, nearly all the time. That really helped Breese find open receivers.
April 14th, 2022 at 2:52 pm
I remember 4Net when we was THE #1 high school recruit in the country. Every LSU game he played in was nationally televised. ESPN showed every highlight.
Can you imagine how big your ego would get?
Then he flames out in JAX. They cut him before his contract was up! He signs with the Bucs as a 2nd string to a 2nd round pick. That must have been crushing.
Winning the Super Bowl and earning the nickname Playoff Lenny was total vindication. He could have gone in a different direction. Way to rise up. Good for 4Net.
April 14th, 2022 at 3:37 pm
Lenny could go for more than 2000 combined yards. He won’t with all the weapons on the offense but maybe the offense should go through him more. Love Lenny, love we have him back. His detractor can drink deuce water.
April 14th, 2022 at 4:14 pm
And they shouldn’t have lost that game he put them in a spot to win it.
April 14th, 2022 at 6:24 pm
I am glad he grew up, mentally. I hope he gets more drive in his legs and has a higher percentage of positive plays this season.