Former RB Coach Terry Robiskie Opens Up on Fournette’s Exit: ‘The Jaguars Were Trying to Blackball Him’

When the Jacksonville Jaguars waived Leonard Fournette last season with just 13 days before the start of Week 1, it served as a fitting, but unfortunate, end to Fournette's turbulent time with the Jaguars.

As a year has passed, Fournette has found a career rebirth and Super Bowl success with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but there are still those who believe his exit from the Jaguars wasn't handled right. Among those are Fournette himself, as well as former Jaguars running backs coach Terry Robiskie, who coached the Jaguars' running backs from 2019-20.

“I would say, yes, without a question, the Jaguars were trying to blackball him,” Robiskie said to ESPN in a story released this week on Fournette's redemption arc in Tampa Bay and why things went wrong in Jacksonville.

“It certainly wasn’t the president or the head coach or the GM, but I do know, coming out of that building, some people had said something to other teams that wasn’t true about Leonard at all."

“I don’t know. What you think?” Fournette said via ESPN in reference to the Jaguars potentially blackballing him as the team planned his exit.

“I mean, you see me every day now. Do you all think it was true? I mean, you all have been around me almost a year now. Who knows, man. … I don’t know. But that’s the word that Jacksonville had put out on me, so, who knows?”

Fournette has reinvented himself with the Buccaneers following his release from the Jaguars. The 2017 No. 4 overall pick rushed for 367 yards (3.8 yards per carry) and six touchdowns in 13 regular-season games before turning it up during the post-season, rushing for 300 yards (4.7 yards per carry) and three touchdowns in four games, while also catching a passing touchdown.

The same year the worst team in the NFL decided Fournette didn't have a place on their 53-man roster, the best team in the league implemented Fournette into their offense at just the right time. As a result, Fournette would re-sign with the Buccaneers this offseason.

Fournette's success with Tampa Bay and the Buccaneers' embracement of the former LSU star has cast his exit from Jacksonville in new light, instead putting the onus on the Jaguars for their relationship with the former top-five pick going wrong, even if the Jaguars still found success on the ground with undrafted free agent James Robinson.

At the time of Fournette's release, former Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone declared the team had attempted but failed to acquire draft compensation from any other team for Fournette's services. But according to Robiskie, the Jaguars didn't make an attempt in good faith to trade Fournette.

“They weren’t trying to trade him,” Robiskie told ESPN.

“They were trying to cut him. .Because to trade him and to have someone say, ‘We’ll give you a fifth-round pick,’ or ‘We’ll give you a sixth-round pick,’ that means he’s got value. But to cut him is degrading, especially to cut a No. 1 draft choice from three years ago, who just the year before had 1,800 yards of total offense, who pretty much just led your team in receptions. … That is the true epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

In three seasons, Fournette played in 36 regular season games and rushed 666 times for 2,631 yards (4.0 yards per carry) and 17 touchdowns, along with 134 receptions for 1,009 yards and two receiving touchdowns. He also played in three postseason games, rushing 70 times for 242 yards (3.46 average) and four touchdowns, with three of those touchdowns coming against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoff's Divisional Round.

Fournette has found a new home and locker room in Tampa Bay, with the Buccaneers, Tom Brady and Bruce Arians forming strong bonds with the former Jaguars' running back. And while the Jaguars have moved on to a new regime in the front office and coaching staff and a new era, the release of Fournette still remains one of the most controversial days in recent Jaguars history.