The Jaguars released Leonard Fournette on Monday morning in a shocking move two weeks before the start of the season.
Fournette, 25, rushed for 1,152 yards and three touchdowns last season. Fournette was the No. 4 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft and was selected ahead of several star running backs including Christian McCaffrey (Panthers) and Dalvin Cook (Vikings).
Fournette’s bruising style no longer aligns with a lot of what NFL teams are looking for at the position. Jaguars coach Doug Marrone acknowledged the team has tried to trade Fournette this offseason.
“We couldn’t get anything. A fifth, a sixth — anything,” Marrone told reporters on a Zoom call on Monday morning.
The former LSU star has had friction with the team in the past, but reports out of Jacksonville were positive in training camp.
“At the end of the day, I want to win,” Fournette told ESPN.com recently. “Who doesn’t want to win? I came from a 2017 season with a team who was 10-6, we had [a good] talent level and then the next couple of years went down the drain. So I just want to address a lot of things, too, especially since the media came out and said I was an angry guy. No. 1, would you be angry if you’re losing week in and week out? That is one of my biggest problems; I do get upset when we lose and it takes me a while to get over it. I expect, just like anybody else, if you put the work in, you want the W, but a lot of times last year it didn’t go like that.
Leonard FournetteIcon Sportswire via Getty Images“I guess they kind of misinterpreted that, and don’t get me wrong, I was upset from the losing, but that’s just the winner in me. That’s any guy who plays this professional level of sports.”
The Jaguars are in rebuilding mode and traded away stud defensive end Yannick Ngakoue to the Vikings this weekend, the latest dismantled piece for a team two years removed from the AFC Championship Game.
Chris Thompson, Ryquell Armstead and Devine Ozigbo currently occupy the Jaguars’ depth chart at running back.
