Leonard Fournette delivered us a great fantasy football season as we expected, but recreating it in the manner he did may not be possible going forward.
The Fantasy Footballers expected a solid fantasy football year out of Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette. He ended up as the RB9 in fantasy points, as well as being the ninth-most consistent fantasy running back in the league.
He rushed for more than 1,000 yards for the second time in his three-year career, but how replicable was his season in fantasy?
Fournette ended up with a career-high 1,152 rushing yards on 265 carries in 15 games. While he only had three rushing touchdowns, Fournette was a quality receiver out of the backfield. He had 76 catches for 522 yards on 100 targets. Fournette had not been known as a receiver, even dating back to his time at LSU, so is this likely to happen again or was 2019 an anomaly?
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Fournette was targeted a combined 74 times in his first two years. While this could be a new part of his game, this probably has more to do with it being out of necessity more than anything.
Here is why the guys think that’s the case.
They point out Jacksonville didn’t have T.J. Yeldon to serve as their change-of-pace back. He is a much better pass-catcher than Fournette. So that could be a reason Fournette was thrown to as often as he was. Let’s also not overlook the 2019 Jaguars for what they were: a 6-10 team that didn’t get a win out of their high-priced free-agent quarterback, Nick Foles.
All six wins were in games sixth-round rookie Gardner Minshew started, not in games when the veteran Foles was under center.
With Minshew being a rookie and trying to figure out the NFL on the fly, that would make sense why he was throwing the ball in Fournette’s direction so much on high-percentage passes.
Expect Fournette to be a top-10 fantasy running back again next year. He can rush for over 1,000 yards for the third time in four years. It’s safe to think his rushing touchdowns will increase from three, but also expect a reduction in his targets. And expect Jacksonville to address its RB2 situation in the offseason to lessen the receiving load on Fournette.