Jags waive Fournette in surprise move
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. » The Jaguars moved another step closer to purging Tom Coughlin’s tumultuous tenure in Jacksonville.
The team waived running back Leonard Fournette on Monday, a stunning decision many outsiders view as the latest in a series of head-scratchers that could help the franchise get the No. 1 draft pick in April.
“If that’s the case, then the realization is if that happens, then I’m not going to be here,” coach Doug Marrone said. “At the end of the day, if I don’t win enough games or do enough with this team, I don’t foresee me still being employed. I’m doing everything I can to make sure we have the best team to make sure we win football games. That’s as simple as I can be on it.”
Coughlin, the team’s personnel chief the previous three years, wanted Fournette as the centerpiece of his old-school, run-first philosophy. It worked in 2017, although it became clear that Fournette needed to be a better pro. He was fined repeatedly for being late and skipping mandatory functions.
Coaches were ready to move on, but Coughlin wouldn’t do it. It was no coincidence that not long after Coughlin was fired last December, Fournette landed on the trading block.
General manager Dave Caldwell spent months trying to unload the player drafted fourth overall in 2017 — ahead of quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson — even though he was coming off a career year. Fournette was on the block during the NFL draft and again over the summer.
“We couldn’t get anything, a fifth, a sixth, anything,” Marrone said.
So they dumped the 25-year-old former LSU star one day after trading the 2017 Pro Bowl defensive end Yannick Ngakoue to Minnesota for two draft picks. Jacksonville also traded Jalen Ramsey, fellow cornerback A.J. Bouye and defensive end Calais Campbell in the past 10 months.
“I am excited about what will come next for myself,” Fournette said in a thank you message to Jacksonville
posted on social media. “Wherever that may be, know that you will get a player who is focused, motivated, and ready to get to work.”
The Jaguars have made it clear they’re trying to revamp what had become a fractured locker room, a setting partly blamed on Coughlin’s tyrannical ways and paying the wrong guys (Blake Bortles, Marqise Lee, Nick Foles).