Bruce Arians Urged Leonard Fournette to Embrace Role with Bucs or Ask to Be Cut

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians gave running back Leonard Fournette an ultimatum after a Week 14 26-14 win over the Minnesota Vikings.

Arians told Fournette, who was unhappy serving as Ronald Jones II's backup, to either accept his role on the team or move on altogether (h/t Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times):

"I said, 'This is your situation. It can change at the drop of a hat. But this is your situation. Either embrace it, or you say, "Cut me." I said, "What do you want? Because this is a very special team that you're part of. I think you've got a feeling of that. Just see if you can hang in there to see what happens." And he did, and I'm really proud of him."

That worked out very nicely for Fournette and the Bucs. The 26-year-old registered 448 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns in four postseason games, including 89 rushing yards and a score in Tampa's 31-9 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV. 

With that, "Playoff Lenny" was born.

It remains to be seen if Fournette will return to Tampa next season. He's one of many high-profile free agents the Bucs will have this offseason, a list that includes wide receivers Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown, linebacker Lavonte David, tight end Rob Gronkowski, edge-rusher Shaquil Barrett and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. 

The Bucs will likely find a way to bring back Godwin and David. But retaining all of those players will be difficult. 

Arians, however, told reporters Monday that the Bucs will be able to run it back with the majority of their free agents:

"I'm very, very confident. I have all the trust in the world in [general manager] Jason [Licht] and what he would do. These guys, they have a bond. There will be dollars involved. But I think that this group is so, so close that sometimes dollars don't matter. But we're going to do everything we can to get the dollars right, too, because they earned it."

And Fournette has expressed a desire to return.

"We'll see. Right now, I'm just enjoying the process right now with this W with this organization and my team. You never know what the future holds for me right now, you know?" he said Thursday on ESPN (h/t Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk). "I wound up ending on a great note. I'd love to be back. We'll have to talk to my agent and see what they're talking about."