2019 Fantasy Football Bounceback Candidate: Leonard Fournette
RB Leonard Fournette, Jacksonville Jaguars
2018 Stats: 133 carries, 439 yards, 5 TD; 22 rec., 185 yards, 1 TD
Taken in the first-round of drafts, Leonard Fournette burned every fantasy football owner who had him last year. A hamstring injury in Week 1 led to two missed games, then an aggravation in Week 4 kept him out through Jacksonville’s Week 9 bye.
From Week 10-Week 12, Fournette had 70 carries for 243 yards (3.5 yards per carry), 10 catches for 115 yards and five total touchdowns (four rushing, one receiving). But an ejection from the Week 12 game against the Buffalo Bills got him a one-game suspension for Week 13, and a foot/ankle issue cost him a meaningless Week 17 game.
Things really couldn’t have been any worse for Fournette last year, and with the Jaguars swapping Blake Bortles for Nick Foles the team has upgraded (however marginally) under center. A healthier offensive line, with left tackle Cam Robinson (knee), left guard Andrew Norwell (ankle) and center Brandon Linder (knee) all on track to be ready for Week 1, to go with second-round rookie Jawaan Taylor, will help.
Fournette had at least three targets in six of his eight games last year, and for one reason or another he essentially didn’t finish (one touch in the second half of Week 15 against Washington) three of those six. He has 58 receptions in 21 NFL games, while averaging 8.4 yards per catch with a catch rate over 78 percent (84.6 in 2018), and the early signs point to him being a big part of the passing game this year.
Jaguars RB Leonard Fournette is going to be a big part of the pass game in 2019. QB Nick Foles says he likes throwing to the backs. https://t.co/Vf26kyKWbH pic.twitter.com/UZp91FWUXo
— Michael DiRocco (@ESPNdirocco) June 13, 2019
Fournette gets plenty of goal line work (23 carries inside the 5-yard line in his career, via Rotowire). The situation behind him has changed, with T.J. Yeldon (55 receptions in 2018) and Carlos Hyde gone and replaced by former Texan Alfred Blue and Benny Cunningham. If nothing else, Yeldon’s passing game production has to replaced and Cunningham (20 catches for the Chicago Bears last year) is a small threat to take some.
Fournette is currently RB14 by ADP in standard scoring (pick 2.10) and full-point PPR (pick 3.02), via Fantasy Football Calculator. There’s a bit of value there, with a big workload giving him legit top-10 upside in all scoring formats. The big question, of course, is health.
Fournette has to have a missed game or two built into his projection. But practically anything he does will qualify as a bounceback season, and from a certain point of view 2019 could become Fournette’s breakout campaign.
Leonard Fournette 2019 Projection: 262 carries for 1,022 yards, 9 TD; 51 receptions for 425 yards, 1 TD
Bounceback Confidence: 75%
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