BREAKING: Buffalo Bills Add Super Bowl Champion Running Back; Leonard Fournette Planning to Sign Ahead of Sunday’s Clash with Red Hot Cincinnati Bengals – Week 8

The Buffalo Bills have added to their running back room well ahead of their primetime matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. Per the NFL’s Twitter page, the Bills have inked RB Leonard Fournette to their practice squad.

Fournette has yet to play or sign with a team this season before Monday. The six-foot, 230-pound rusher last played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2022.

Leonard Fournette, nicknamed Playoff Lenny, was the fourth overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft. The LSU product spent his first three seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars, totaling 3,640 scrimmage yards and 19 total touchdowns during that span. Fournette signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following his release, rushing for 367 tards and six touchdowns in his first season. However, the 28-year-old eclipsed over 1,190 yards in his past two seasons but rushed for just 3.5 yards per attempt last year.

Fournette is known mainly for his playoff success. He has rushed for 604 yards and nine touchdowns in nine postseason games. He has also caught 35 passes for 254 yards and one score. Fournette was instrumental in the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl run in 2020, rushing 64 times for 300 yards and three scores in four games. He took 16 carries for 89 yards and a touchdown in his team’s 31-9 Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Bills will place Leonard Fournette on the practice squad to start his tenure. The Bills currently have former second-round pick James Cook, veteran Latavius Murray, and Ty Johnson as the active running backs. Offseason signee Damien Harris was placed on the injured reserve (IR) earlier this month after suffering a scary neck injury.

Cook and Murray have been the go-to options for head coach Sean McDermott. Cook has rushed for 4.8 yards per attempt this season on 102 carries. Meanwhile, Murray has struggled with efficiency but has been the change of pace back to Cook. Meanwhile, Ty Johnson has yet to register a carry. Fournette could challenge Murray for the backup role if the latter continues to struggle to break big rushes. 

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After 40 years covering this game, I’ve come to realize how maddeningly interesting and capricious it is. Take Cincinnati-San Francisco in California Sunday. The game turned on a shake of the shoulder by one of the great players today, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who’s spent the last three games reaffirming his greatness.

Reaffirming is right, because Burrow spent the first month of the season as a liability, not a cornerstone. And on a knock-down, drag-out afternoon, with Joe Montana and old 49er friends celebrating Super Bowls past from a box upstairs, Burrow did something with 13 minutes left that Joe Cool would have done. The great ones make plays like this almost without thinking. That’s part of their brilliance.

Cincinnati was up, 17-10, and trying to put the game away after a Brock Purdy interception gave the Bengals the ball at the Niners’ 17. On first down, Ja’Marr Chase lined up split right with Tyler Boyd a step behind him and just to the right. At the snap, Burrow’s eyes bore a hole through Boyd, just the way coach and play-caller Zac Taylor designed it.

“Just trying to sell the perimeter screen,” Burrow said nonchalantly (does he ever speak in any other tone?) over the phone, an hour after the game.

And as Boyd took a step back, like he was about to catch a laser from Burrow, the QB almost imperceptibly began his throwing motion to Boyd, with corner Charvarius Ward moving forward to shadow the WR. “Yeah,” Burrow said, “I gave a little pump fake.” Very little. Still, the shoulder tic looked like it froze the corner covering Chase, Isaiah Oliver, for a split second while Chase zoomed toward the right corner of the end zone. Burrow lofted a strike to Chase, who must have found it odd to not be skin-to-skin with a corner in the end zone. He caught it unchallenged. Ballgame.

“What was cool,” Burrow said, “is it happened exactly how we practiced it. Our guys did a great job of selling it. It’s no secret we like to throw those kinds of routes to Ja’Marr—it’s a big part of what we do. In that situation, a great call by Zac.”

In that situation, great execution by Burrow. He’s just so confident, so unshakeable. Now that Burrow’s achy calf muscle that erased training camp and made him ineffective for the Bengals’ toothless 1-3 start has faded—faded is right, because it’s not altogether gone—Cincinnati should be serious contenders again. The 31-17 win Sunday and Burrow’s brilliant show (28 of 32, 87.5-percent accuracy, three TDs, no picks) gave him a 111.8 rating in the team’s three-game winning streak.

“It’s tough,” Burrow said, “when you have an injury and you’re playing through it. You obviously can’t do some things that normally you can. But we got through it. We got through it healthy and we’re on the other side now, it feels like. My strength is still coming along. In the offseason, I worked the most on athleticism and explosiveness and so it was tough to not be able to show that over the first couple weeks. I was able to show that today and it’s nice seeing hard work pay off.”

Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, all 4-3, trail 6-2 Baltimore in the AFC North, approaching midseason. Burrow’s return to health could be the decisive factor in who wins the division. “We’re exactly where we need to be,” Burrow said. “And we’re going to keep getting better.” After watching him shred the Niners, it’s hard to doubt him.