The last few weeks of discourse surrounding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Leonard Fournette are coming to a close.

Not that it was the most likely pairing on the planet, but the Bucs had a need and Fournette needed somewhere to play.

Still, the door is officially closed between these two parties given the fact that Leonard Fournette is signing with the Buffalo Bills.

This was always a longshot anyway. Fournette was the best back on the market and the Bucs did have a need, but that bridge appeared to be burned long ago.

It is hard to bench a guy in favor of a rookie, choose not to re-sign him as a free agent, and then come back to the free agent with hat in hand almost six months later once a need has arisen.

Still, it was worth a shot.

Now the focus for Fournette turns to trying to win his second Super Bowl with his third team. The Bills are one of the best teams in the league, and one of their biggest weaknesses right now is their inconsistent ability to run the football.

The hope for Buffalo is that Fournette should change that paradigm day one and make this team an even stronger contender.

Whether this will pan out remains to be seen, but it is clear for the Buccaneers that their pool of options to save their run game is shrinking by the day. At this point, the only guys available that will actually help will come from a trade, and that window is closing fast.

Disaster with Buccaneers shouldn’t come as a surprise

How did Tampa let this happen?