5 NFL teams who will regret not picking up the fifth-year option for 2021
By John Buhler
South. player. 52. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. 1. AFC. Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars not giving Leonard Fournette the fifth-year option might be the strangest decline of all. While he hasn’t been a Pro Bowler in any of his first three years out of LSU, he has rushed for over 1,000 yards twice and has built quite the rapport with quarterback Gardner Minshew already. Jacksonville might be rebuilding, but why not give him the option?
What’s the worst thing that happens? You let him go after 2021 and try your luck again to draft a bell-cow back in the draft. By doing this, the Jaguars are setting themselves up for one of two bad options: He walks away in 2021 for nothing or he’s franchise tagged for a price well beyond what the fifth-year option would pay. It won’t be as caustic as Yannick Ngakoue, but you never know.
Despite being incorrectly labeled as block-handed coming out of LSU, Fournette proved he could be a reliable safety valve out of the Jacksonville backfield a season ago. His ability to run the ball, pass protect and catch balls out of the backfield will go a long way in us seeing how high Minshew’s ceiling is as an NFL starting quarterback.
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What this all really comes down to is the Jaguars are rebuilding in 2020 and are making no effort to prove to us otherwise. It may be a clean slate for whoever is running the team in 2021. Getting off Fournette’s contract might be a plus in a wholesale rebuild. However, how sure are we the Jaguars will be able to draft someone better than Fournette in 2021?