Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Leonard Fournette reach 3-year, $21 million deal, sources say

Running back Leonard Fournette, who spent Monday visiting with the New England Patriots, is re-signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a three-year, $21 million deal, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Tuesday.

The deal includes $11 million guaranteed and could reach $24 million with incentives, sources told ESPN.

Fournette ranked sixth among all NFL running backs with 1,266 yards from scrimmage, averaging a career-best 4.5 yards per carry, when the Bucs placed him on injured reserve with a hamstring injury after Week 15. He missed the wild-card game and returned for the Bucs' divisional-round loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

After signing his second one-year deal with the Bucs last offseason, Fournette, 27, rushed for 812 yards and scored 10 total touchdowns. He also caught 69 passes for 454 yards.

His best game came in Week 12, when Fournette, in addition to delivering a memorable halftime speech when the Bucs fell behind, rushed for 100 yards on 17 carries and had seven receptions for 31 yards. The last of his four touchdowns in that 38-31 victory was a 28-yard run with 29 seconds remaining.

Fournette earned the nickname «Playoff Lenny» — and later, «Lombardi Lenny» — while leading the Bucs with 448 scrimmage yards and four touchdowns in their postseason run, which culminated in his 135-yard performance as Tampa Bay beat the Kansas City Chiefs to win Super Bowl LV.

After backing up Ronald Jones for the majority of the 2020 season — an experience that he and the coaching staff believe humbled him and helped prolong his career — Fournette seized the opportunity when Jones suffered a broken finger, went on the reserve/COVID-19 list and suffered a quad injury in Weeks 15 and 16.

Fournette was the fourth-overall pick in