Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Leonard Fournette attain 3-year, $21 million deal, sources say

Operating again Leonard Fournette, who spent Monday visiting with the New England Patriots, is re-signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a three-year, $21 million deal, sources informed ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Tuesday.

The deal consists of $11 million assured, sources informed ESPN’s Jenna Laine, and it might attain $24 million with incentives.

Fournette ranked sixth amongst all NFL operating backs with 1,266 yards from scrimmage, averaging a career-best 4.5 yards per carry, when the Bucs positioned him on injured reserve with a hamstring harm after Week 15. He missed the wild-card sport and returned for the Bucs’ divisional-round loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

After signing his second one-year cope with the Bucs final offseason, Fournette, 27, rushed for 812 yards and scored 10 whole touchdowns (eight within the common season). He additionally caught 69 passes for 454 yards.

His finest sport got here in Week 12, when Fournette, along with delivering a memorable halftime speech when the Bucs fell behind, rushed for 100 yards on 17 carries and had seven receptions for 31 yards towards the Colts. The final of his 4 touchdowns in that 38-31 victory was a 28-yard run with 29 seconds remaining.

Fournette earned the nickname “Playoff Lenny” — and later, “Lombardi Lenny” — whereas main the Bucs with 448 scrimmage yards and 4 touchdowns in a postseason run to Tremendous Bowl LV, the place he rushed for 135 yards as Tampa Bay beat the Kansas City Chiefs.

After backing up Ronald Jones for almost all of the 2020 season — an expertise that he and the teaching employees consider humbled him and helped delay his profession — Fournette seized the chance when Jones was sidelined for the ultimate few weeks of the season by accidents and a stint on the reserve/COVID-19 checklist.

Fournette was the fourth total decide in 2017 by the Jacksonville Jaguars, who declined to choose up his fifth-year possibility and launched him after the 2019 season. After a troublesome 2018 season through which he was on the bench in crunch time, fined and criticized, Fournette responded along with his finest season statistically with the Jaguars in 2019, speeding for a career-best 1,152 yards and catching 76 passes for 522 yards with three whole touchdowns.

He has 3,810 speeding yards with 31 speeding touchdowns and 239 receptions for 1,696 yards and 4 TD catches in 63 profession regular-season video games.