From Jaguars training camp on Friday, here’s a video of defensive lineman Sheldon Day getting into the backfield and putting a hard, heavy lick on Leonard Fournette:
Day with a big got in the backfield on Fournette. #wintoday pic.twitter.com/2TM5l4bpJA
— Gary Criswell ✖ (@GaryCriswell) August 4, 2017
Day’s hit may have been too high (it’s hard to tell from the wide camera positioning), but Fournette was apparently OK. It’s nonetheless jarring to see the former LSU star get hit so hard that his forward momentum just stops. That’s something college fans saw just about never during Fournette’s three-year run in Baton Rouge.
Fournette was the fourth overall pick in the NFL draft because of his outrageous blend of speed and power. When he played at LSU, Fournette could often run around SEC defenders when he wanted.
But just as often, he preferred to go through them, reducing many of them to piles of ash while he truck-sticked them, shed their tackling attempts, and continued upfield. Not getting tackled one-on-one is a pride point, he’s said.
And for the most part, he hasn’t. Some of his greatest hit sticks:
We had to make an an entire collection of Fournette’s greatest truckings, because he collected so many. He’s the most powerful runner to come through the college ranks in a while, and chances are good he’ll develop the same reputation in the pros.
Fournette’s still got his speed and cutting ability, too:
Fournette with a beautiful cut back. Open field! pic.twitter.com/JTnPGbyDmc
— Zach Goodall (@zach_goodall) August 3, 2017
Fournette’s going to run over lots of NFL defenders in the next couple of years. Day will always get to claim he stopped him in camp, though. That’s a hard thing to do.