Buccaneers Byron Leftwich Looking to 'Help 'Lenny' Out'
Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette enters Week 4 fourth in the league in carries.
His 57 carries this season are five shy of Nick Chubb's 62 for the Cleveland Browns.
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When you add receptions to the equation, however, Fournette and Chubb have the same amount of touches.
For Cleveland, they have Kareem Hunt to lean on as a second back on the field.
In Tampa Bay, the second guy is rookie Rachaad White, and after him is third-year backup, Ke'Shawn Vaughn.
“I think the way that the games were going...we would prefer ‘Lenny’ [Fournette]," Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich said on Thursday when asked about the large gap in touches between Fournette and his backups. "Not that any of them [are] doing anything wrong – [it’s] just that right now in those situations, with Rachaad being young, right now I’ve really been leaning towards ‘Lenny’."
Despite not doing anything to warrant a limiting of touches, White has just 10 in three games.
In the Week 3 loss to the Green Bay Packers, the rookie had none.
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"I do believe I’ll start giving Rachaad more reps just throughout the game," Leftwich continued. "What we were doing, we were giving him series and it just so happened that Rachaad’s series didn’t go well so they were quick and he was out [of] the game. I’ll do a better job of getting all of those guys involved, because we need to do that to help the room out, to help ‘Lenny’ out and [keep] ‘Lenny’ from playing so many plays.”
Currently, Fournette is on pace to play more snaps, have more touches, and have significantly more carries than he's ever had in his career.
While his talent certainly supports the trend, the fact he's never played a full season healthy is all the reason the Buccaneers should need to get 'Lenny' some help.
Controlling the ground game against the Kansas City Chiefs would certainly be a good game plan if Leftwich were to choose this weekend as the time to follow through on his statements.
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