Bucs' Leonard Fournette Posts Cryptic Tweet After Rumors About Playing Weight
July 19, 2022
On Friday, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reported on his Sports Day Tampa Bay podcast that Leonard Fournette showed up to mandatory minicamp six weeks ago "about a donut shy of 260" pounds (h/t Jason Owens of Yahoo Sports).
In a cryptic tweet Tuesday, Fournette appeared to respond to the rumor:
Stroud added that Tampa Bay's coaches weren't thrilled with Fournette.
"Coaches were not happy, and that's an understatement, when he didn't participate in the OTAs, but then he shows up at the mandatory minicamp weighing damn near 260," he noted. "And that's not a good sign for a guy that you've just spent a three-year contract on."
Fournette is listed at 228 pounds, so 260 pounds would be well above his playing weight.
"I'm at 240-something right now," Fournette told reporters at the June minicamp. "So definitely 230, 228 is definitely my range."
Fournette added: "Obviously, I need to get my weight down, which has always been [a thing] during the summer. It's going to come back down, though."
Fournette, 27, has played well since joining the Bucs prior to the 2020 season, when he started only three regular-season games but played a major factor in Tampa Bay's run to the Super Bowl title. He rushed for 812 yards and eight touchdowns last year and added 69 catches for 454 yards and two scores.
He was rewarded with a three-year, $21 million deal in March, and his former backfield mate, Ronald Jones, signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, leaving Fournette as Tampa Bay's clear feature back.
The Bucs, however, drafted running back Rachaad White in the third round and have Ke'Shawn Vaughn and Giovani Bernard as well.
Still, where Fournette was in June isn't nearly as important as where his conditioning and weight will be for August's training camp.
"I don't think anybody's where they need to be right now," new head coach Todd Bowles said in June.
"It's training camp where you need to be where you've got to be, so right now there are guys that are in shape that could afford to lose a few pounds, and there's guys that are out of shape that are really underweight. So we're trying to take care of that right now. We'll worry about it in training camp."