The Jacksonville Jaguars came just a few plays away from reaching Super Bowl LII, narrowly falling to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game. Overall, this season should be considered an overwhelming success for Jacksonville, who hadn't even reached the postseason in a decade.
One of the brightest young players to emerge on the roster was rookie running back Leonard Fournette. Despite battling a number of injuries, he still managed to finish the campaign with 1,040 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns in 13 games, in addition to 36 catches for 302 receiving yards. He took his game to another level in the postseason, scoring four touchdowns to help Jacksonville reach the cusp of the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance.
In wake of Fournette's emergence and T.J. Yeldon's production out of the backfield, Chris Ivory has become expendable. According to First Coast News' Mike Kaye, the Jaguars will likely cut Ivory this offseason:
While his contract still has plenty of dead money, Ivory sure seems like a goner at this point. He was inactive for the last two games of the Jaguars' playoff run, despite being the lone running back with postseason experience.
As Kaye notes, letting Ivory go will save Jacksonville $3.68 million, despite it costing $3.25 million in dead money.
The Jaguars signed Ivory after his impressive 1,070-rushing yard season with the New York Jets in 2015. In two years with the Jags, he has failed to accumulate that total, combined. The 29-year-old still has some carries left in the tank, so he'll likely be picked up by another team looking to fill out their depth chart.
In addition to Fournette and Yeldon, running back Corey Grant showed flashes of brilliance in the first quarter of the AFC title game in Foxborough, averaging nearly 20 yards on three receptions out of the back field in the period.
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