Leonard Fournette Fantasy Value Still Not Gone Thanks to Huge Workload on Thursday Night Football

Watching Week 3's "Thursday Night Football" matchup between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans probably wasn't a very pleasant experience if you have Leonard Fournette on your fantasy football team.

The Jags dominated to the tune of a 20-7 victory, but Fournette had rushed for negative yards (-8) heading into the Jags' final drive, when he salvaged his day with 74 yards on four attempts. This has been a terrible start to the season for Fournette, and that may have fantasy players looking to give up on him.

He's still seeing elite volume though, which could also make this an opportunity to buy low on Fournette with a bounce-back season still firmly in play.

This was only the fourth time in the 2019 season that any running back has been on the field for 100 percent of their team's offensive snaps (Christian McCaffrey twice, Le'Veon Bell). There's only one other time an RB has played more than even 90 percent, and that was also Fournette (97 percent in Week 2).

He was the only Jaguars running back to record a single carry in Week 3, and his eight targets were also the second most on the team.

Fournette is tied with WR Dede Westbrook for the team lead in targets (20) this season, and his 42 percent market share of the Jaguars' opportunities (targets plus rush attempts) is the third highest for any player in the NFL.

Fournette's lack of efficiency is obviously a concern, but efficiency (particularly over a relatively small three-game sample) is not especially consistent. Dominating the touches for a team that has scored 58 points, for example, means Fournette is not likely to keep a zero in the TD column for long. Volume is far more consistent week to week, and Fournette still has a great shot at producing as a top fantasy RB moving forward.

It's easy to see why someone would be ready to quit on Fournette at this point. He has yet to post double-digit standard scoring fantasy points in a game, and even in PPR he's averaging a middling 13.1. And he just had to rely on a single 69-yard carry to even push him into positive rushing yards on Thursday.

Volume is king at running back, though. Fournette owners shouldn't be too concerned about his prospects moving forward unless he sees a significant drop in workload. If the Fournette owner in your league is panicking, this could be the perfect time to buy low.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.