The Fullback

[TheLynchTrain]

Remember the first thing Schonert did when he came in? He supposedly ripped up the Fairchild's "genius" H-Back position and instituted the real fullback. This is what he said way back in August.

“I grew up in Bill Walsh’s offense [at Stanford] and they always threw the ball to the fullback,” said Schonert, who was Walsh’s quarterback with the Cardinal. “When I was here the first time we had Sam Gash and he was a good thumper, but we’d run a play fake and he had good hands and we threw it in the flat to him a bunch of times. I think we can do that with Darian.”

 

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/billsnfl/story/408245.html

 

But it didn't go down that way. And then Barnes unceremoniously was cut. They brought in McIntyre. A lot of people thought it was good...we marched the company line that McIntyre was a better special teamer, had better hands. But in reality, McIntyre was a couple hundred thousand dollars cheaper.

 

I can't remember too many special teams tackles McIntyre was in, or for that matter, how many times he was out on the field. We all remember how the Bills put their season hopes on his back during the play with the Jets, but I'll leave that for another discussion.

 

So obviously, the Bills didn't utilize the fullback this year. They will probably argue it was a talent issue. Neither fullback was good enough to get on the field enough. There's also the fact that Jackson was too good to keep of the field.

 

But the fact is, the Bills blew it on the fullback situation this year. Two pro bowl fullbacks, both of whom have made 4 pro bowls each, and were on the pro bowl roster last year, were cut by their teams and on the open market. You may have heard of them. Tony Richardson and Lorenzo Neal. Both of these guys have blocked for numerous thousand yard backs. Every year in the league, Richardson has got a back a 1000 yards. There's no surer bets than that in the NFL. Lorenzo Neal got backs 1000 yards every year until this year....although you can hardly blame him for the situation in Baltimore...I think they're doing quite alright without a thousand yarder, thats for sure. McClain definately looks pretty good because of the guy blocking in front of him. Obviously theyre both 37, and many teams probably thought they were washed up, but they sure proved them wrong. When I saw Richardson picked up by the Jets this year, my first thought was "Well, Thomas Jones is surely gonna go over 4 a carry this year." What did he end up with? 4.6!

 

And how much were each of these great players making this year? A mil? Two mil? Try $830,000. Both of them. McIntyre is making $530,000. So we cheaped out over $300,000, when we spend $100 mil a year on salary? Its a drop in the bucket. Lee Evans is now making that money every quarter on the field.

 

And the other point: Fred Jackson being on the field too much. How many times did we really see the two on the field together, even with the Bills saying such in August? Maybe once or twice a game? And besides, when our receiving core took a hit midseason, we really couldn't play 2 RBs and a top flight FB? That would have given defenses fits.

 

With all the solutions people have been saying on this board, TE, DE, the line is overrated, I think one of them needs to be a top flight FB. As you see here, they can come pretty cheap. And not only do we need to get one, we need to use him!