Leonard Fournette has looked like a star at times this year. The No. 4 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft has been a terror for opposing defense during his rookie campaign, accruing 596 rushing yards and six touchdowns on the year. He’s been especially great the last two games, as he put up 311 yards on the ground against Pittsburgh and Los Angeles.
Basically, he is close to becoming the face of the Jacksonville franchise, so it only makes sense that he is getting benched for the team’s Week 9 matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Word of Fournette’s benching came down earlier on Sunday morning, and at first, it looked like he was getting held out for the most absurd reason you can imagine: Missing the Jaguars’ team photo.
Amongst the reasons Jaguars RB Leonard Fournette is out today is that he missed the team photo earlier this week, sources confirmed to ESPN.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) November 5, 2017
This is a really strange reason to straight up bench anyone, let alone one of the guys who has helped get you to first place in your division. But more information about the benching came out, and as it turns out, missing the team photo was more of a straw that broke the camel’s back than anything.
Should be noted that there are layers to this. The photo was a part of it, but other factors were prominently involved in deactivation. https://t.co/bYk5kdpshH
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) November 5, 2017
Sources tell me Fournette missed treatment, workout and team photo this week, hence his benching, tho there's more to it
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) November 5, 2017
Holding a player out for an entire game is really harsh, but you can argue that all of this makes the benching a little more justifiable, especially because both Glazer and Yates imply that there’s more to missing a few team events.
