Cowboys Signing Leonard Fournette as Pollard Backup? 'Weighty' Reason Why Not

The Cowboys and the Patriots have often been linked to Leonard Fournette. But he remains on the shelf. And now maybe we know why.

On the one hand, fans and media hate to be too deferential to the people who actually run the local NFL team. After all, they are mere mortals and as it's been said (by us), "If they're really geniuses, they oughta quit football and go cure cancer.''

On the other hand ... Will McClay knows more about football personnel than we do.

Not long ago, we wondered if the Dallas Cowboys should add to the roster former Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette. He's big. He can block. He can catch. He's "Playoff Lenny!''

But Dallas never budged there, not even offering Fournette - who has had an otherwise eventful offseason by having to escape a burning car! - a workout.

The New England Patriots, however, have shown interest in the free-agent running back market in recent weeks, hosting several on visits in Foxboro for workouts. Ezekiel Elliott, of course, is on that list. So is Fournette.

Granted, like Zeke, he is not the same player he was when he burst onto the scene with the Jacksonville Jaguars. After spending the last three seasons playing alongside former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, the Bucs' Fournette finished last season with his second-lowest yards per carry rate of his career at 3.5.

And despite the constant linkage between him and the Patriots, which even saw him visit Foxboro last offseason before returning to Tampa, Fournette remains on the shelf. And now maybe we know why.

“I’ve had a couple of people tell me he wasn’t in the best of shape,” Paul Perillo of the team's website recently said when on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston.

This isn't the first time a report of an out-of-shape Fournette has come out. According to multiple reports last August, Buccaneers coaches were upset with how the former LSU back reported back from the offseason overweight.

Apparently, at one time, the sixth-year veteran weighed in right under 260 pounds for the Buccaneers, which was much bigger than his listed weight of 228 pounds.

With that recent history in mind, it is totally possible that Fournette's weight was a red flag for the Patriots once he got to town. And given that Dallas personnel boss McClay is fully plugged in - yes, even more than fans and media - it is totally possible that the Cowboys are also armed with this knowledge.

The Patriots are weighing their options on the open market at running back, with our reporting that there was a visit and then a dinner with QB Mac Jones in Boston for Elliott. The Cowboys don't seem to be weighing much at all, trusting Tony Pollard and company - at least for now - even with Ronald Jones' suspension.

Do we as fans and media have other ideas about what the Cowboys should do at running back and elsewhere on the roster? Of course. Do the Cowboys themselves have more information than we do when it comes to decision-making? We shouldn't hesitate to say "of course'' to that, either.

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