Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette has slammed reports that he has come back to training camp overweight. 

The NFL season is fast approaching, as team veterans are set to report to training camp next week before the preseason games begin during the second week of August (with the exception of the Las Vegas Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars who will be playing in the Hall of Fame Game the week before). 

There have already been some activities for NFL teams including minicamps and OTAs, both the voluntary and mandatory kind, but this last stage really does make it feel as though we are in the final stretch when it comes to time without football.

And as a result, it’s time for the players to be in peak physical condition, something that apparently isn’t the case with Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette. 

Like a men amongst boys

Coming out of college at LSU, Fournette was seen as someone who could easily make the transition into the NFL given his incredible size which meant he was more of a powerful runner than someone with a burst of speed, which is why the Jaguars picked him up with the 4th overall pick.  

And make the transition he did as he hit the ground running during his rookie season with over 1,342 total yards and 10 total touchdowns including this 90-yard run against the Pittsburgh Steelers:

Injuries in both his first and second year in the league hampered some of his progress, but he bounced back the following year with another 1,000-yard season, despite this though he was released by the Jaguars and moved to Tampa Bay where alongside the likes of Ronald Jones and LeSean McCoy, he helped lead them to a Super Bowl victory off the back of some impressive playoff performances. 

He is set to enter his 3rd year with the Buccaneers, but according to reports, things have started off on the wrong foot.

Fournette fights the fat

According to a claim from reporter Rick Stroud on the Sports Day Tampa Bay podcast (via SI.com), Fournette returned to Bucs minicamp a full 30 pounds overweight “Coaches were not happy, and that’s an understatement, when [Fournette] didn’t participate in the OTAs, but then he shows up at the mandatory minicamp weighing damn near 260 [pounds]. And that’s not a good sign for a guy that you just spent a three-year contract on.”

However, in a since-deleted tweet (taken from TMZ), Fournette lashed out at the reporter over his claim, saying that his number was way off what was being claimed: 

Fournette is currently listed on the NFL website as 228lbs, a number which will likely be updated later in preseason when official measurements are done, but at least he admits to putting on some extra weight rather than totally lying about it. You just have to hope that it was mostly muscle to make more of those barrelling runs.