It’s essentially been a one-man show in the backfield for the Bucs through two games. Leonard Fournette has led the way at the running back position as an every down player and hardly exited the field.

Bucs RB Leonard Fournette – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

In Week 1 at Dallas, Fournette played in 47 out of a possible 62 offensive snaps, which was good for 76 percent of the time. He would’ve played more as well, but the Bucs built a big enough lead to give him a rest at the end of the game.

In Week 2 at New Orleans, he was on the field against the Saints for 58 out of a possible 67 snaps, which amounted to 87 percent.

In each game, Fournette played the most amount of snaps by any skill position player. On the other side of it, backup Rachaad White played just 17 snaps and nine snaps respectively. Reserve Ke’Shawn Vaughn has been inactive for both weeks and third-string running back Giovani Bernard, who just went on injured reserve, didn’t get any reps on offense.

Fournette Good To Go?

Is Fournette able to hold this up for an entire season? Running backs get hit more than everyone and have a much shorter shelf life in the NFL. But Lombardi Lenny doesn’t have any worries about his endurance.

“For me, it doesn’t really matter,” Fournette said. “Coming into each and every week, we have guys who are unique all over the offensive board. So, when we come into the game, whatever happens – people may get hurt, people may not get hurt – I just go along with the coach’s call and play football.”

The Bucs running game was very, very different in each contest. They ran with ease over the Cowboys in Week 1, racking up 152 yards on the ground with their starting running back responsible for 127 of the yards on the ground. It was much tougher sledding for the Bucs in Week 2 against a stingy Saints defense, recording 72 rushing yards. Fournette led the way with 65 yards rushing.

Bucs RB Leonard Fournette and Saints DB Justin Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Though it was much more difficult to get the ground game moving in New Orleans, Fournette earned a lot of those yards with power and second effort. Tampa Bay’s rushing attack would’ve been even worse if not for his running style. Fournette fought his way through the defense very physically, which got 28 yards after contact.

“It’s definitely a challenge,” Fournette said. “Especially for our young guys. Just knowing that every time we play against the Saints it’s going to be a scrappy, scrappy game. It’s going to be physical, grit, a lot of things when we come to a place like that. Even though we didn’t have a great running game against them, we did enough to have a balanced passing game and running game.”

It clearly didn’t take too much of a toll on his body as Fournette even worked out at night after the game when the Bucs got back to Tampa. He put a pic of him in the weight room up on social media on Sunday night.

With Mike Evans out for Week 3 against the Packers, it’s going to be important that Fournette is a focal point for Tom Brady and the offense. The running backs are going to have to be involved, which means it’s going to be all Fournette, all the time again.

“It’s very critical,” Fournette said. “We know what Tom likes, he likes checking the ball down to the running backs and things like that. A lot of these young guys are going to step up and make big plays and that’s what we expect out of them.”