After he was surprisingly released by the Jacksonville Jaguars, just three years after they made him the No. 4 overall pick in the NFL draft, running back Leonard Fournette found himself looking for a new home in professional football.
Turns out, he didn’t have to look far.
Fournette quickly signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and though it’s been a transition for him to go from the focal point of the Jags’ offense to a role player in the Bucs’ loaded unit, he knows he made the right decision.
“Yeah, I did, most definitely,” Fournette said Wednesday. “I knew I could come in and help the team out.”
Fournette said Bucs quarterback Tom Brady wasted little time recruiting him to Tampa Bay, and that he found an invaluable brotherhood once he arrived.
“The first guy that hit me when it happened was Tom [Brady],” Fournette said. “I’ve [known] Tom and Tom hit me like, ‘Man, I would love for you to come help us out.’ And the first thing – who wouldn’t want to play with Tom? Now that I’m here, I’ve just surrounded myself with a great group of people – Chris [Godwin], Mike [Evans], Cap (Alex Cappa), Ryan [Jensen] – a lot of those guys I didn’t know at first. I love it here, to be honest. We have a brotherhood. It’s going fine right now. We’re working our tails off each and every day to make each other better and that’s what we’re doing. That’s the best thing about football, is the unity.”
With Ronald Jones II out of the lineup for the wild-card game against Washington, Fournette delivered a huge performance, racking up nearly 140 total yards and scoring the touchdown that would ultimately put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter.
Fournette is proving to be a valuable asset to an already talented Tampa Bay offense, and he’s confident he found the right place to continue his career, at least for the time being.
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