Is the Jaguars offense too dependent on Leonard Fournette?

Leonard Fournette has the Jacksonville Jaguars offense wrapped so tightly around his finger that even Mister Geppetto would be jealous.After spending a rare top-five draft selection on the transcendent talent from LSU Josh Lambo Jersey , it would have been foolish of Nathaniel Hackett not to manufacture a playbook that made Fournette the fulcrum of their offensive mission. And under Tom Coughlin, the Jaguars want Fournette to punch the ball into the end zone on short yardage situations and churn out the tough yards to allow this defensive-minded team to kill the clock and play with a lead.The danger, however, of going all in on one player perhaps manifested itself this past Sunday in the Meadowlands after Fournette was sidelined in the second quarter during the Jaguars’ season opener against the New York Giants. Although Doug Marrone categorized the muscle pull as “minor” Fournette’s ailment was obviously serious enough to hamstring the Jaguars offense for two and a half quarters.Leading up to Fournette’s injury, the Jaguars offense was cooking with impressive drives of 10 plays for 4:43, three plays for 1:17 — ended abruptly on a Blake Bortles interception — and 15 plays to run 8:01 off the clock. After Fournette exited the game, the Jaguars did not sustain more than six consecutive plays across seven drives, and their longest possession in the second half was six plays for 2:31.Six plays. Two minutes. Thirty one seconds.Simply put, these are unacceptable conditions for this offense. The Jaguars are built to play with a lead and kill the clock with long drives to keep its defense fresh and effective. That’s the formula, and the fact that they couldn’t follow suit without their feature player is alarming for this offense.I decided to go back through the tape and see just how much Fournette’s absence impacted Hackett’s play calling http://www.thejaguarslockerroom.com/authentic-taven-bryan-jersey , and the results were curious:The first number is the amount of running backs in the formation and the second is the number of tight ends. For a detailed breakdown of personnel sets, check out the ITP glossary.According to the chart above, Hackett employed a much wider variety of personnel groupings when Fournette was in the game, and this assortment of packages made life difficult for opposing defensive coordinator James Bettcher early on in the contest. While the Jags run the majority of their plays out of “posse” personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers) even with Fournette, it seemed like Hackett switched exclusively to 11 or 12 personnel alignments after Fournette left the game and Yeldon subbed in. The most intriguing morsel to digest is that almost all of the two running back personnel sets (20, 21, 22) were with Fournette in the game. This is the special two back sets that we had seen a glimpse of in preseason that helps keep the offense creative and difficult to defend. If not for trying to run out the clock at the end of the game and the one goal line touchdown, Yeldon wouldn’t have even taken a snap in “tank” (22) personnel Womens Justin Blackmon Jersey , so it’s obvious that these unique packages were tailored for Fournette and severely limited Hackett’s creativity when not available. As a result, it almost makes sense that Grant had even less snaps after Fournette was out of the game, because most of his niche packages likely included Fournette as a decoy to adequately execute. With a game coming up against a Patriots linebacking unit that lacks the speed to keep up with Grant (*cough* 2017 AFC Championship game *cough*) Fournette’s unavailability for the game could be a major blow. In his postgame presser, Bortles emphasized how much faith he has in Yeldon to carry the load if Fournette can’t go. Bortles, however, isn’t the one calling the shots and the proof could be in the clam chowder if Fournette isn’t ready to go on Sunday against the Patriots. So what do you think? Is the Jaguars offense too heliocentric around its prodigal sun? It seems unlikely any team moves to London, with the logistics making it difficult for any team to call the UK home.After a report surfaced linking the Chargers to a London move, Chargers owner Dean Spanos, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the NFL quickly shot it down. Spanos called the report “a lot of crap” and used even more profane language denying it.Jaguars owner Shad Khan, whose team would seem the most likely to move if any team were ever to call London home Cam Robinson Jersey , offered his denial, too.“Personally, in my humble opinion, I don’t think it’s anywhere near close to that,” Khan told Rich Eisen of the NFL. “We don’t want to have more games than there’s really organic demand for.” The Jaguars play an annual game in London, and Khan wants to extend that partnership with the deal set to expire after the 2020 season.“The idea I had was, why don’t we sell the games we can in Jacksonville and then play a game and make a long-term commitment to London, which frankly, a lot of people thought was very crazy,” Khan told Eisen. “But I think it’s turned out to be great http://www.thejaguarslockerroom.com/authentic-myles-jack-jersey , and we need London to really have a stable franchise in Jacksonville.”The Jaguars, though, have no plans to make London their permanent home. It will remain their home away from home with Jacksonville their primary home.“Well, I think no, there are no plans for us to move the team to London,” Khan said.