Who will play fullback for the Cleveland Browns in 2019?

With no fullbacks currently on the roster, the Cleveland Browns could be in the market for a new one in 2019. Or, they could continue to get creative in order to fill the role

The Cleveland Browns will be looking for a fullback this off-season as they currently have none under contract. Anybody who watched the New England Patriots triumph in the playoffs realizes what an asset James Devlin was, especially in the Super Bowl.

In particular, the combination of Devlin and tight end Rob Gronkowski blocking for the halfback in short yardage was devastating. Devlin set the Gold Standard for fullbacks, appearing in 35.7 percent of the Patriots’ total offensive snaps last year.

The press made a big deal about the Patriots’ ability to “morph into a different offense every week,” blah, blah, blah, but you also saw a lot of halfback following Devlin over right tackle last year too. It’s not all rocket science.

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The NFL is often characterized as a copycat league, and there are a number of teams that will want to capitalize on the Patriots’ success by finding their own Devlin for 2019, and to pair him with the biggest blocking tight end they can find. Hence it is easy to predict that the rest of the NFL will be scrambling to find a fullback this off-season.

Danny Vitale was IR’d last year by the Browns and then cut from the roster. He eventually wound up with Green Bay where he made a few appearances. In college, Vitale was known as the “Superback” at Northwestern, lining up at fullback, halfback, H-back, tight end, slot and waterboy (probably). However, Cleveland used him mainly for blocking as a more or less conventional fullback. It may be that he can be used in a lot of different ways, but he probably did not block as well as his replacement, Orson Charles.

Charles wears a tight end’s number, Ozzie Newsome’s old No. 82, but really played fullback most of the time. Charles was a longshot to make the team, as he had been cut by several teams before finding his way to The Land.

However, two of those teams were the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs, so he had had connections to both former head coach Hue Jackson and John Dorsey. Would he have made the roster if Danny Vitale had stayed healthy?

Charles went down with an ankle injury in December, after a good season for the Browns. Put it this way, Nick Chubb should have been taking Charles out to dinner a lot, because Charles really helped the rookie have a great campaign. Charles had more snaps (173) than any other free agent fullback, and he’s still a young veteran at age 28. Both Charles and Vitale are free agents this year.

Charles was used sparingly, with game snaps ranging from five to 25 over the course of the year.  He was generally used in place of a third wide receiver. In 2017, Vitale was used somewhat less than Charles in 2018. So you could probably say that Charles was good enough to force the team to expand his role, in a lineup that had bona fide talent.  By contrast, Vitale had a smaller role for a team that was much less talented.

Charles also gained a reputation as a spitfire who fit in well with Baker Mayfield’s high-energy game.

Seth DeValve and Darren Fells took on some of Charles’ duties after he was IR’d.  Fells is the better blocker, and with Njoku running most of the pass-catching routes, it might make sense to expand the role of Fells in the offense.  DeValve was a very good receiving tight end in limited reps, but he was behind both Njoku and Fells on the depth chart. His future with the team is uncertain.

The other available fullbacks in free agency are headed by Jamize Olawale who blocked for Ezekiel Elliott in Dallas last year, Anthony Sherman from Kansas City, Mike Burton, who played for Chicago and Tre Madden of the Seahawks.

You might suspect that Sherman could wind up with the Browns because he was one of John Dorsey’s guys with the Chief and beat out Charles before. But Sherman took only 98 snaps with the Chiefs, and Madden (86 ) and Burton (49) played even less.

Olawale took 114 snaps for the Cowboys.  If you look at how many snaps each player took in 2018 compared to how much they were paid (as listed in overthecap.com), there does not seem to be any great bargain there.

On a value basis, Devlin not only showed up big, but he showed up often and was way underpaid compared to his contemporaries. He took far more snaps than any of the free agent fullbacks, though his salary was actually lower than those of Sherman and Olawale.

Orson Charles actually looks very good. He was a force on special teams and more than adequate on offense, and if he didn’t play a lot, he played more than the other players who are available.

Hence, if you’re the GM and you want to pull the trigger on a potential upgrade via free agency, you probably have to believe that that player can vastly increase his role on offense.  Maybe that would be someone like Vitale, who was a legitimate threat both receiving and running in college, though the jury is still out on whether he can successfully expand his role in the Pros.

The Browns probably had the top two guys in free agency on contract in 2018, and thus they will have the inside track if they decide to pursue Charles or Vitale for next season, with Charles being the clear favorite to be brought back.

The draft is another potential source of talent, though it is very possible that the best prospect at fullback is someone currently identified as a tight end or running back. Plus different teams have different ideas about what the fullback should actually do.

Some teams are wanting to line up a second halfback, used as an outlet receiver. For example, WalterFootball.com lists Ryquelln Armstead from Temple as their top fullback candidate, all 5-foot-11, 205-pounds of him. That may be true, but it would not be the same role.

If we are referencing a bone-crushing blocker like the 6-foot-3, 251-pound Devlin, that might lead us to study some film on someone like Alex Ingold (6-2, 242-lbs) from Wisconsin. Pittsburgh had two big backs in overgrown tailback Qadree Ollison at 6-2, 230, and  George Aston a 5-11, 241 sho-nuff fullback.

Ollison put up numbers in 2018, rushing for 1213 yards and a 6.2 yards per carry average. However, he had only 50 receptions in his college career. The buzz is that Ollison is going to be drafted on Day 2 or 3.

Will the scouts see him as a tailback, or will they see a role for him as another Devlin,  but one who is also capable of putting up numbers? As for Aston, he only touched the ball 73 times in college but came away with an astounding 14 touchdowns. Is this a fluke, or is this guy a superhero in short yardage, goal line situations?  Still, Aston is not being talked about as a likely draftee but may be signable as an undrafted free agent.  It might be worth a shot.

All in all, the Browns’ experience with Orson Charles and Danny Vitale looks pretty good compared to what’s actually out there. In terms of free agency, they might rank one and two, or close to it. The draft doesn’t shout at you about prospective fullbacks, but there might be a possibility of developing a guy with the right skill set.