JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —used to be considered a building block in Jacksonville. Then he ended up on the trading block.
Will he pick up Jay Gruden’s offence, build on a career-high 1,152 yards rushing, become a more dependable teammate and maybe earn a long-term deal from the Jaguars or someone else? Or will he lose touches to Jacksonville’s other backs and end up unceremoniously leaving the team that drafted him fourth overall in 2017?This much is certain: Fournette realizes his NFL career is at a crossroads.
“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. 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.”He didn’t know the playbook as well as expected as a rookie. He got out of shape the following year.
Still, he ended up back in the doghouse during the off-season after he posted a picture of himself with free agent quarterbackFans — and quite possibly coaches and teammates — took it as a shot at Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew, whom the front office had already shown a commitment to by trading Super Bowl 52 MVP“When all that was going around, I kind of took a step back from football and I had to realize it’s bigger than that,” Fournette said. “It’s a lot bigger than that.