Getty Images Leonard Fournette taking a handoff against the Ravens.
Finally, some good news for fantasy owners of Leonard Fournette! The Jacksonville Jaguars running back is back to practice, after spending pretty much the entire first half of the season on the bench. Back in week one, Fournette left the game early with a pulled hamstring, which kept him out of week two.
Then, Fournette returned during week three in hopes that everything would be okay, and unfortunately, it wasn’t. The Jaguars knew that Fournette was injury prone when they drafted him out of LSU back in 2017, but they didn’t get to truly experience his injury woes until his Sophomore season.
That’s the risk that you take when you draft a running back that thrives off of running with power. Fournette’s injury was the first major roadblock that the team ran into this season early on, and since then, nothing has gone Jacksonville’s way.
Once the team realized that they would be without Fournette for a while, they made a win-now move by acquiring running back Carlos Hyde for a mid-round draft pick. Clearly, that didn’t do much to help them out recently. But with T.J. Yeldon still on board, and Hyde around, how will all of this affect Fournette’s fantasy value for when he returns?
Does Fournette’s Stock Take a Hit?
Crowded backfields are the norm nowadays. More often than not, teams are utilizing a heavy dose of multiple running backs, which makes it difficult to decide who you should play in fantasy. Good news for Fournette owners, though. That most likely won’t be the case in Jacksonville. At least, not for a while.
If and when Fournette returns this week against the Indianapolis Colts, there’s a good chance that he is eased back into his role. It’s only necessary considering that he has to get back into the swing of things after missing so much time early on. So, don’t panic if Fournette just gets a small dose of carries this week.
Once Fournette is back and getting a good feel for playing full time again, the backfield will be all to himself. Hyde will get a small chunk of the carries for the first few weeks, but Fournette will prove to the better back later on down the stretch.