The State of the Jacksonville Jaguars Running Back Room

It's still Leonard Fournette's unit but with more supporting characters. Is it enough?

The most hotly contested position group in football is the running back unit. Philosophies range from, a good running back can win you games to their skills being null in today’s game. Somewhere in the middle sits a unit that produces just enough successful college players every few years to make NFL teams excited but not enough Derrick Henry’s to go around for everyone.

That’s where the Jacksonville Jaguars find themselves preparing for the 2020 season after not drafting a running back in the 2020 NFL Draft. Head coach Doug Marrone’s running back unit is headlined by their 2017 No. 4 overall pick, Leonard Fournette, who now heading into a contract year after the Jags declined to exercise his fifth-year option and were unable to trade him after a public auction process. What does that mean for the group this coming season?

Even in his contract year, Fournette will still be the face of the unit. There is simply no other name on the roster that can handle the load he has handled in the past. Fournette’s has 2,631 yards and 17 touchdowns on 666 carries along with 1,009 yards and two touchdowns on 134 receptions.

Fournette’s rookie season saw him tie or come just behind Fred Taylor in multiple franchise running back records. His teammates elected him a captain in 2018 and this past season he finished fourth in the AFC and seventh in the NFL with 1,152 rushing yards on 265 carries. His 76 receptions ranked fifth among all backs in the NFL and are the most recorded in a single season by a running back in team history. It was also the most receptions for any Jaguar, running back or receiver, during the 2019 season.  

Fournette statistically has done more than any Jaguars running back since Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew. But is it enough to go beyond the face of a unit and become the face of a franchise? Can a running back even be the face of a franchise in this day and age?

 If the answer to at least one of those questions is no, then Fournette could feasibly be the RB1 that a team needs to compete. But since the NFL pendulum has currently swung back to “you need a game-changing back to win” he will need to sustain his respectable production this next season if there’s a future in Jacksonville.

Related: 4 Observations on Jaguars Decision Not to Exercise Fournette's Option

The only other running back with more experience on the roster is newly signed free agent Chris Thompson. He last played for the Washington Redskins, the majority of the time under current Jags offensive coordinator Jay Gruden when Gruden was the head coach. This will be his seventh season. He hasn’t produced as much as Fournette— 250 rushes for 1,194 yards and five rushing touchdowns—but could be used in different sets and set downs.

Fournette is a dependable piece on every down thanks to his pass blocking—the surest way to give a back a higher snap count—but Thompson is an intriguing option as a pass catcher out of the backfield. In his 66 career games, he has pulled in 212 receptions for 1,772 yards and 10 receiving touchdowns. That means he’s averaging 6.7 yards per reception. More often than not, a screen or swing to a rusher out of the backfield is on second or third down so typically 6.7 yards would be enough to move the chains.

From there the options peter out, with only two other backs on the roster with experience (Devine Ozigbo and Ryquell Armstead). Ozigbo appeared in the box score for the final game with nine rushes for 27 yards. Armstead’s rookie season was respectable for the fifth rounder, finishing with 108 yards on 35 rushes, along with 144 yards and two touchdowns on 14 receptions.

Gruden electing to use more pass catching backs bodes well for not only Fournette, but both Thompson and Armstead as well. The rest of the unit is made up of undrafted free agent signings: Nathan Cottrell (Georgia Tech), Tavien Feaster (South Carolina) and James Robinson (Illinois State).

Of those three, Robinson was a real possibility to be drafted. The FCS back was a first team AP All-American his senior year and finished his career with 4,444 yards and 44 touchdowns. He and the Jaguars were in contact several times leading up to the draft according to the "Rockford Register Star".

Quarterback Gardner Minshew’s 67 rushes for 344 yards make him just enough of a “keep an eye on him” rushing threat to keep defenses honest. But the bulk of the rushing responsibilities in 2020 will look much the same as last fall. Now the question remains, will it be enough?