Leonard Fournette makes his case that 'running backs matter' in NFL
Leonard Fournette seemed to get a bit energized when the topic turned to the value of running backs.
We’ve heard it for years: In a game increasingly built around passing, running backs just aren’t worth what they were in the past. Then an Ezekiel Elliott comes along to join forces with the NFL’s best offensive line and help boost the Dallas Cowboys to a division title.
“It wasn’t just Zeke,” Fournette told USA TODAY Sports this week, the excitement rising in his voice as he pondered the past two drafts. “Look at Todd Gurley. Running backs still matter.”
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Fournette, the chiseled former LSU star who has drawn comparisons to Bo Jackson, is regarded as the top running back in the NFL draft that commences Thursday night. It would be a stunner if he lasts past the eighth slot, when the Carolina Panthers are pegged to pick, and he might not get beyond the fourth slot held by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
He’s big, fast, powerful. Just like Elliott, who won the NFL rushing crown with 1,631 yards after being picked fourth in last year’s draft and would have been the league’s offensive rookie of the year if not for his quarterback, Dak Prescott. In 2015, Gurley, picked 10th by the then-St. Louis Rams after coming off reconstructive knee surgery, rushed for 1,106 yards.
Fournette, who rushed for 1,953 yards as a sophomore, embodies the potential to have a similar type of instant impact.
Yet there are also cases to be made that Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey or Florida State’s Dalvin Cook – the other two running backs projected as first-round picks -- will wind up as the best back from this year’s class. McCaffrey might be the best route runner in the draft, including the receivers, and could become a matchup headache in the passing game. Cook is versatile in his own right. And Oklahoma’s Joe Mixon, despite the strings attached to his assault on a woman before his freshman year, is also regarded as a first-round talent.
“It’s not just me,” Fournette said. “When you look at Christian, Dalvin and Joe, it shows that the running back position still has great value.”
Pondering Elliott and Gurley, Fournette added, “They set great examples for us.”
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After arriving Tuesday evening in Philadelphia, where he will be joined by more than two dozen family members and friends for the draft, Fournette conducted a whirlwind series of interviews arranged by Met-RX, with whom he has signed on as an endorser for its nutritional supplements.
That seemed fitting enough. Fournette weighed in at the combine at 240 pounds, which raised questions about his conditioning after a junior season challenged by ankle injuries. Within weeks of the combine, though, he had dropped to 228 pounds for LSU’s pro day.
“I wanted to show people that I was disciplined enough to drop the weight,” Fournette said.
Even when he weighed 240, when he ran a 4.51 in the 40-yard dash, Fournette contends, “I didn’t feel 240. I still felt slim and fast. I felt like I was 235.”
Where did the extra weight come from?
“I drank a lot of water,” he said of his combine experience. “I was getting up at 5 a.m., trying to get hydrated.”
That explanation is a bit more intriguing when considering it was revealed in recent days that that at least two players – Michigan safety Jabril Peppers and Alabama linebacker Rueben Foster – failed drug tests at the combine because of diluted samples. Both players contend their samples were the result of drinking excessive amounts of water at the combine.
Fournette couldn’t speak to the cases of the other players, but indicated that there is nothing unusual about players increasing their hydration amid training regimens.
In any event, it’s on to the next level. His mission?
“To win a Super Bowl,” he said flatly.
Fournette, a New Orleans native, also sounds like a grounded man with keen perspective. Regardless of how high he’s drafted and how much of an impact player he projects to be, he doesn’t want to be viewed as a savior.
“Whatever the case, we have to be all in as a team,” he said. “It’s a team sport. Without your team, you’re nothing. I can’t beat 11 guys on my own.”
Sounds like a man who knows exactly how to measure value.
Follow NFL columnist Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell
