Dear NFL: Bring Back the Fullback

[GoobyPls]

i wish you would lean to read, and know what you are talking about. That is obviously to much to ask of you. 

Neal was there for the first half of norv's tenure there. 

Also, i never said every highscoring offense. That's your idiocy.   

Take care.

First half?????

Good lord what are you smoking? He was there one year and once he left Norv went with Tolbert

 

 You specifically said "You want a high scoring offense, you should absolutely positively 100% be on board with having a traditional fullback . Back tracking much?

Go ahead and look up the top 5 offenses from 2014 how much of them used a traditional FB on a regular basis? Most those teams barely even run.

[pantherclaw]

Not back teacking at all. You said i said every high scoring offense has a traditional fullback. Thanks for proving yourself an ass. Good day.

Edited June 26, 2015 by pantherclaw

[pantherclaw]

You weee right that Neal was there only one year. 

Norv was his best as an offensive coordinator, not a head coach. 

His best offenses had fullbacks on the field a lot. Cowboys being his.most notable tenure as offensive coordinator, with a tradition fullback. 

Back to the original post...would love to have a tradition fullback that excells at his job, as our offense would be better. 

[Killa Cam 69]

I love the old school I formation .. Always have

[Mr. Scot]

If our offense is Coryell then we a doing a terrible job at it. Our QB runs more any Coryell QB in nfl history and we were one of the worst teams in big plays last season.

Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I'll ask: What exactly do you think we're running?

[pantherclaw]

Strong running games sure do lead to more big plays down the field.

[Nick_81]

Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I'll ask: What exactly do you think we're running?

He has no clue.  This will be an interesting answer...

[Wundrbread33]

For fans of smash mouth football, the demise of the punishing NFL fullback has had a negative impact on maximum game enjoyment. Gone are the days of a 250lb work horse demolishing a linebacker as he paves the way to the end zone. Yes, I miss the blocking fullback. If you would frequently find yourself zoning in on a crushing block instead of the ball crossing the goal line, you probably miss them too. 

It seems we are not alone...

 

 

As PFF noted, fullbacks have become a thing of the past. But could that change? 

Over the past decade, defenses have adjusted both physically and within their schemes to defend against the offensives without fullbacks. Linebackers have gotten smaller, faster. More defensive sub-packages are being used than ever. Across the league the typical 4-3 is giving way to hybrid nickel and other formations. Teams are less worried about their linebackers getting dominated physically, but being out run. 

It is my contention that now may be the perfect time to bring back the punishing fullback, before defenses can easily adjust to them. 

A few weeks ago I was promoting Lee Ward as a guy on the Carolina Panthers roster that could immediately fill this role. Ward is a pure blocking specialist, almost perfect in technique. A quick look at his highlight reel from college will get any red blooded American football fan excited. 

Also, Panthers offensive coordinator Mike Shula does have experience with this type of player. As offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay, Shula utilized all time fullback great Lorenzo Neal as a blocking specialist, paving the way for the shifty Warrick Dunn and also for Mike Alstott in their rhino package. 

Could we see Ward in the same role in Carolina? Imagine him blocking for Jordan Todman, or perhaps on the goal line in front of Mike Tolbert. 

What say you Panthers fans... Are you ready for the blocking fullback to return? 

 

 

 

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The "highlight reel" link...is a link to a link that finally gets you to a video...

Was this done for extra ad revenue for clicking multiple pages? That's the only reason this makes sense. I would rather you just tell us straight up.

 

I don't mind clicking like 20 pages for you from time to time if that would help.

[Tom]

Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I'll ask: What exactly do you think we're running?

Panthers are more Erhardt-Perkins than Air Coryell. Mike Shula is a disciple of Ray Perkins . Perkins coached Shula when he was QB @ Alabama. Later Shula worked for Perkins when Ray was head coach at Tampa Bay. TB ran Erhardt-Perkins when Shula was there under Dungy. When Shula became Head Coach of Alabama he hired coordinators that worked under Perkins. 

The classic Erhardt-Perkins is a very conservative offense (ex: the Giants under Parcells). Erhardt famously said "You have to throw the ball to score but you have to run the ball to win" (sound familiar?). While both offenses want to establish the run and utilize playaction,  Coryell is all about attacking vertically. E-P is more about taking what the D gives you rather than having multiple receivers streaking downfield. Chud was an Air Coryell guy. Shula may have maintained some of Chud's stuff but it's a totally different philosophy. 

[Mr. Scot]

He has no clue.  This will be an interesting answer...

There are plenty of people on here who likely couldn't name the major offensive systems in pro football, much less differentiate between them.  Heck, they're probably in the majority.

And truth be told, nobody should feel bad about that.

You don't need to be a football expert to contribute to the conversation on here. Just being a relatively informed watcher is enough.

Some who get lost when the conversation gets really deep aren't too proud to ask questions, and they should be lauded for that.

It's the people who don't know the deeper aspects of the game, but try to act like they do in order to puff up their image, who wind up looking stupid.

Being that way is how you wind up saying something dumb (like we've seen in this thread).

[Mr. Scot]

Panthers are more Erhardt-Perkins than Air Coryell. Mike Shula is a disciple of Ray Perkins . Perkins coached Shula when he was QB @ Alabama. Later Shula worked for Perkins when Ray was head coach at Tampa Bay. TB ran Erhardt-Perkins when Shula was there under Dungy. When Shula became Head Coach of Alabama he hired coordinators that worked under Perkins. 

The classic Erhardt-Perkins is a very conservative offense (ex: the Giants under Parcells). Erhardt famously said "You have to throw the ball to score but you have to run the ball to win" (sound familiar?). While both offenses want to establish the run and utilize playaction,  Coryell is all about attacking vertically. E-P is more about taking what the D gives you rather than having multiple receivers streaking downfield. Chud was an Air Coryell guy. Shula may have maintained some of Chud's stuff but it's a totally different philosophy. 

Disagree on the base offense, although I definitely see where you're coming from.

The closest I saw to it being a pure E-P under our current coaches was back in  2013 when they dialed back on the vertical and had Cam doing more short passing. It actually worked better than I expected it to, but I think with Cam's skill set and the way the team is being tooled, it's going to be more straight Coryell.

I'd actually prefer E-P honestly, but given the players we've got I definitely see the offense to come being more of a pure Coryell. Funchess in particular is someone I see being well suited to that.

Mind you, despite his admiration for Norv Turner, I'm not sure Rivera has a preferred offensive system. Back when we were looking at new OCs, the choices were all over the map.

Edited June 26, 2015 by Mr. Scot

[Moorgan]

Panthers are more Erhardt-Perkins than Air Coryell. Mike Shula is a disciple of Ray Perkins . Perkins coached Shula when he was QB @ Alabama. Later Shula worked for Perkins when Ray was head coach at Tampa Bay. TB ran Erhardt-Perkins when Shula was there under Dungy. When Shula became Head Coach of Alabama he hired coordinators that worked under Perkins. 

The classic Erhardt-Perkins is a very conservative offense (ex: the Giants under Parcells). Erhardt famously said "You have to throw the ball to score but you have to run the ball to win" (sound familiar?). While both offenses want to establish the run and utilize playaction,  Coryell is all about attacking vertically. E-P is more about taking what the D gives you rather than having multiple receivers streaking downfield. Chud was an Air Coryell guy. Shula may have maintained some of Chud's stuff but it's a totally different philosophy. 

Before this post I had honestly never heard 90% of what you said. I learned something today even if Mr Scot doesn't think it's 100% Panthers. I have no idea but I learned this. My day is done.

[Mr. Scot]

Before this post I had honestly never heard 90% of what you said. I learned something today even if Mr Scot doesn't think it's 100% Panthers. I have no idea but I learned this. My day is done.

I don't agree with his conclusion but I respect the logic.

[Nick_81]

Panthers are more Erhardt-Perkins than Air Coryell. Mike Shula is a disciple of Ray Perkins . Perkins coached Shula when he was QB @ Alabama. Later Shula worked for Perkins when Ray was head coach at Tampa Bay. TB ran Erhardt-Perkins when Shula was there under Dungy. When Shula became Head Coach of Alabama he hired coordinators that worked under Perkins. 

The classic Erhardt-Perkins is a very conservative offense (ex: the Giants under Parcells). Erhardt famously said "You have to throw the ball to score but you have to run the ball to win" (sound familiar?). While both offenses want to establish the run and utilize playaction,  Coryell is all about attacking vertically. E-P is more about taking what the D gives you rather than having multiple receivers streaking downfield. Chud was an Air Coryell guy. Shula may have maintained some of Chud's stuff but it's a totally different philosophy. 

I used to feel like this was an EP offense, but really it's not.  If you look back on last season, you can see the Coryell philosophy shine right through.  We weren't taking what the defense gave us.  It was a straight up, pound the ball, run play-action, and attack vertically.  The problem was, we had guys like Cotch and Avant running those vertical routes for the first half of the season.  It wasn't very successful, due to personnel, but you could definitely see it.  I think it will become pretty evident this season.