In 2017, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ confidence was at an all-time high and fans were hard-pressed to find a team with more. However, with the team being so young that confidence also made them believe things would come easy, but that wasn’t the case as they only won five games.
Tailback Leonard Fournette was amongst those who felt the most humbled by their disappointing five-win season and told the media that 2018 was a good teaching lesson for him and his comrades.
“I think we appreciate last season overall,” Fournette said after Day 3 of training camp Saturday. “I feel like a lot of things, individually, we all could have done to get ourselves in better shape confidence-wise coming off a great season in 2017. I think last year kind of humbled a lot of us in some ways.”
While he did come into 2018 in great shape, last season probably humbled Fournette more than any Jag as he had the most disappointing season of anyone on the offensive end not named Blake Bortles. Not only did he fail to build off a solid rookie season in which he ran for 1,040 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns, but he also butted heads with front office leader Tom Coughlin and dealt with another suspension.
As for his teammates, they couldn’t get much going without him on the field and dealt with a questionable locker room situation off it. Like Fournette, many others on the team have come out to say things could’ve been done better if they acted more as a team last year, so it appears they are just as aware as Fournette is about what held them back.
