Unsung Heroes - The Fullback Effect

With all of the stats available, everyone always seems to overanalyze every little detail as to what can cause a drop in production.  Often this leads to overlooking certain role players that don't show up on the stat sheet.  Offensive linemen are often mentioned as the unsung heroes.  Very few get their names mentioned unless they are beaten for a sack or penalized.  However, the need for a strong offensive line is recognized by most football fans.  One position that is overlooked, even by most knowledgeable football fans is the fullback.  The effects of a true blocking fullback can be tremendous, however since they don't accumulate stats themselves, they tend to be ignored and fly under the radar.  Additionally, with some of the newer offenses the traditional blocking fullback is being fazed out and few teams still employ one.  However, it's worthwhile to remember that about 5 years ago few teams employed the 3-4 defense.  Hopefully fullbacks will have a resurgence as well. 

            Ever since Jerome Bettis retired, the Steelers have become more of a passing team, and short yardage in particular has been a problem area.  There has been a lot of discussion from certain individuals at BTSC that Willie Parker is starting to wear down and no longer has the speed / burst necessary to break the long runs.  One of the other obvious potential causes that gets mentioned quite often (and rightfully so) is the difficulties with the offensive line.  Whether this is a result of the personnel or issues with our offensive line coach and offensive coordinator using a scheme which is a poor fit for our personnel is a matter for debate.  Why you take (and this year draft) bigger / slower lineman and try to force fit them into a zone blocking scheme better suited to smaller / quicker lineman has never made much sense to me, but that's a debate for another thread.  I'd like to suggest that one of the main reasons for the recent decline in our running game is the lack of a solid, run-blocking fullback. 

            As you may have guessed from the username, I'm a huge Dan Kreider fan.  When Mike Tomlin was hired I had visions of Kreider filling the short yardage / goal line role ala Mike Alstott from Tomlin's days in Tampa Bay.  Instead, Tomlin made, in my opinion, one of the very few mistakes of his admittedly short time as a Steelers head coach.  Due to Carey Davis's special teams ability and his ability to get outside and seal the edge faster, he relegated Kreider to a minimal role and often deactivated him on game days.  While Davis has a lot of versatility, he is not particularly strong at any one skill and unless it's solely for special teams, I do not expect him to make the roster this year.  By the end of last year, Sean McHugh had mostly supplanted Davis as the fullback.  With the addition of Frank "the Tank" Summers we now have someone who can potentially fill Davis's special teams role as well as provide McHugh competition at fullback.    

I believe that Willie Parker has been getting a lot of undue criticism for slowing down due to the line, blocking scheme, and lack of a true fullback.  Jerome Bettis went through two separate periods in his career where he heard a lot of the same criticism.  The first time was in his last year in St. Louis when Tim Lester left to sign with the Steelers.  The Rams went to more of a single back set and no longer gave the Bus a big body to follow into the line.  Thankfully, St. Louis compounded their mistake by trading a "disappointing" Bettis to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a 2nd and 4th round draft pick.  The Bus was reunited with Lester in Pittsburgh, his yards/carry went up a full yard, and he rushed for 3000 yards over the next two years.  It was a wonderful way to kick start his hall of fame career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Unfortunately, in 1998 the Steelers repeated the Rams mistake, and began to phase Tim Lester out to accommodate Jon, Witman, their 3rd round draft pick from the year before.  Although Bettis continued to put up 1,000 yard seasons, there was talk that he was wearing down and not gaining as many yards per carry.  In 2000 an undrafted rookie free agent out of New Hampshire beat the odds and made the Pittsubrgh Steelers and began to take some of Witman's playing time.  Bettis rushed for over 1300 yards for the first time since 1997.  The following year his yards/carry once again went up by a full yard.  Unfortunately, injuries started to catch up with Bettis and his number of carries began to decrease leading to missed games, and eventually a complementary role to Willie Parker.  Bettis new role involved picking up short yardage and running out the clock to put the game away.  Based more on the role he was asked to play, Bettis average yards/carry went down again.  However, thanks largely to Kreider, as well as the best guard in the game, Bettis was largely unstoppable from distances shorter than 3 yards.  The sight of Alan Faneca pulling to the right, Kreider following him to wipe out anyone left standing, and Bettis steamrolling anyone foolish enough to try and fill the gap was repeated over and over again.  The other team knew what was coming, we knew that they knew, but we would run it until they stopped it.  On the rare occasion they did stop it, we ran it again.  This truly was a case of the most physical team winning, and the perfect example of "attrition football" as Tomlin likes to refer to it.

In 2005 and 2006, Willie Parker assumed the main bulk of the carries, and again Dan Kreider was there to pave the way.  Fast Willie rushed for almost 2700 yards and averaged over 4.5 yards per carry.  Mike Tomlin became the head coach in 2007. and embarked on an extremely successful career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.  One of the few mistakes that he has made in his short tenure is to replace Kreider with Carey Davis.     Parker had another successful year in 2007, and may have won a rushing title if he wasn't injured towards the end of the season.  However, in both 2007 and 2008 Parker's average yards/carry dropped, and the long, game-breaking runs seemed to disappear.  Some have speculated this is because Parker is getting older or worn out.  However, it's been well documented that he seldom carried the ball in college, and has only been a primary back in the NFL for 4 years.  The overall wear on Willie compared to a typical back of his age is minimal, and I feel like he has at least another 3 solid years of production, particularly if Mendenhall can develop into a good complement and reduce Parker's workload. 

For a non-Steeler example of this phenomenon, take a look at a high profile running back who had a down year in 2008 and many are speculating may be past his prime.  LaDainian Tomlinson had a sub par year, at least by his standards, in 2008 and his average yards/carry dropped almost a full yard to 3.8.  Is it because he's reached the dreaded age of 30?  Is it because he's been worn down from the high number of carries?  Or is there a less obvious, at least to all of the stat obsessed fantasy football fans?  Is it even remotely possible that it's a result of losing Lorenzo Neal as his lead blocker.  Neal has led the way for Tomlinson in 5 out of his 8 years in the league.  During that span, Tomlinson has averaged over 1540 yards a season, averaged less than 4 yards a carry only once, and twice averaged over 5 yards a carry.  Jacob Hester was listed as a fullback for the Chargers in 2008.  Hester is a versatile player who I had actually hoped the Steelers would draft, but from a run blocking standpoint he is not in Neal's league.  I'm not as familiar with the Chargers, but I don't believe they used a blocking back very often last year.  As further proof of Neal's blocking prowess, witness the issues we had with the Raven's running game last year, particularly their short yardage package.  While a lot of the credit goes to Le'Ron McClain, it was Lorenzo Neal who was clearing the way.  The combined size and power of the two backs was reminiscent of the Bus following Kreider into the end zone. 

While it's hard to argue with the results of two division championships and one Superbowl championship in two years, I believe he made a mistake by phasing out Dan Kreider.  One could make the argument that Davis's speed (compared to Kreider) allowed him to seal the edge quicker and made him a better blocker for Parker.  However,  due to recent offensive line issues, a defender is often in the backfield.  This forces Parker to dodge tacklers and prevents him from getting a full head of steam.  In short yardage / goal line situations (think Indianapolis) having a powerful fullback like Kreider would result in the free defender getting pancaked instead of a loss of two.  I know that Tomlin walked past 5 Lombardi trophies (6 now) everyday on his way to the office and not 5 rushing titles. Given the new addition to the trophy case, Tomlin has obviously made the right choices to accomplish the only thing that ever matters in Pittsburgh.   However, the Steelers have lost the ability to pick up the 3rd and 4th and less than 3 yards on the ground.  The addition of a true blocking fullback would add this ability to a very potent offense, help to put games away, and hopefully add an unprecedented seventh title to the newly revived City of Champions.

I'm not a huge stat person, because I don't think they always tell the whole picture, but I've included some info on Parker, Bettis, and Tomlinson below. 

I've been a long time reader, but have been waiting until I felt I could contribute a decent post before I submitted anything to this site.  Due to the recent lack of football related news, I felt this might be a good time for a change of pace.  Hope you like it. 

Jerome Bettis

Willie Parker

LaDainian Tomilinson