Quote:“What I’m trying to find – if it’s out there – is this hybrid-type of player that can play in the backfield.”
Marrone has ideal vital statistics in mind for this heretofore mythical, new-age fullback: height, weight, 40-yard-dash speed, etc. Marrone has held discussions with Bills General Manager Doug Whaley and Buddy Nix about this model candidate.
“Someone that can play back there and is good enough to be a lead blocker,” Marrone said. “Someone that can catch the ball extremely well out of the backfield. Someone that may be able to pull or trap out of the backfield. But also someone that can play maybe off the line, an F-tight end, not necessarily on the line, where you can strategically get him” in space “and then getting four full phases of special teams.”

But is this dream concoction an urban legend, more likely to be dreamt up on a Madden video game?

This player must have the proper mobility to operate in the open field, hands to catch, physical strength to block and compact size for maximum pad level at the point of attack.

Quote:“When you talk about hybrids,” Marrone said, “you say to yourself, ‘What is the dominant trait?’ It’s hard to find that dominant trait because if he’s a big, bruising blocker, then how is he going to be the player you’re looking for on the perimeter?”

That fullback, if he isn’t a figment of a hopeful coach’s imagination, almost certainly would need to be converted from some other position out of college and developed over time.

Even then, Marrone mused, it would be difficult to cultivate such a player. Marrone called that “the tough part” of a process that already sounded quixotic.

“You’re going to need time and patience to develop it, ” Marrone said. “The question is where do you strategically want to put that in? Where do you want that development to take place? Because in the offseason you can get caught a little bit, and then you’re going to have to make a decision in training camp where that player stands.”

And then your project gets cut and another team picks him up.

So perhaps the best way to approach Marrone’s fullback-in-training concept would be to stash him on the practice squad and coach him up in secret, almost like a top-secret experiment.