Buccaneers' Leonard Fournette: No more major obstacles to touches

Fournette no longer has to share the Buccaneers' backfield with Ronald Jones, who recently departed to the Chiefs in free agency, Greg Auman of The Athletic reports.

Although Fournette generally drew the headlines when it came to the Buccaneers' backfield last season, the split in workload between him and Jones wasn't as drastic as might be assumed. Fournette did log 79 more regular-season carries than Jones in two fewer games in 2021, but the former only logged at least 20 rushes in a game twice all season and postseason. Third-year back Ke'Shawn Vaughn currently slots in as Fournette's primary backup for the 2022 season, and although the Vanderbilt product has shown flashes over his first two campaigns, he only has 62 career carries. That lack of experience gives him considerably less pedigree than Jones, who'd amassed 364 carries and 59 receptions during the 2019 and 2020 seasons alone before morphing into a clear complementary back back over the course of 2021.