SELF-PUBLICITY NOTE: Football Outsiders Almanac 2015, the annual tome previewing all 32 NFL teams, plus the college football season put out by Football Outsiders, is now available. I was a contributor for the sixth consecutive season, writing the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, and, yes, once again, Tennessee Titans chapters. The PDF is currently available from the Football Outsiders website, while a print version will be on Amazon soon (based on the past, I’d assume next week at some point). Buy it, buy it, buy it! /end plug
Our next stop on our trip around the Tennessee Titans position by position, after quarterback and running back, is a look at the fullback position.
The perennial fullback positional analysis question is whether there should even be a fullback positional analysis. It’s been especially relevant the past two offseasons, what with the arrival of Ken Whisenhunt and that when I did the 2015 offseason positional analysis, there wasn’t a fullback on the Titans roster under contract for 2015. This led naturally to speculation there wouldn’t be a fullback, or the Titans might be content to keep a couple H-backs around who could line up as a fullback. My expectation was that the Titans would add a fullback in the offseason, but it was still an open question. Then the Titans selected Jalston Fowler in the fourth round of this year’s draft and rendered the whole discussion moot.
Fowler was the first fullback chosen in this year’s draft. By taking him in the fourth round, the Titans were declaring they really liked Fowler and really wanted a fullback. It’s their team, not mine, so they make the decisions. Given their history with draft picks and what taking Fowler in the fourth round says about him, he’ll make the team and play.
What about Fowler the player specifically? The finer points of fullback blocking are as lost on me as the finer points of offensive line blocking. He seemed like a decent fullback, but one who sometimes struggled to sustain blocks and didn’t always find the best angle on players downfield. These are common problems for fullbacks, and I don’t have a great intuitive feel for where he ranks on the spectrum.
Evaluations I read from other people, like Dane Brugler and Lance Zierlein, include these concerns and indicate that if you’re looking for a pure hammer, Fowler probably is not your guy. Rather, what he is good at for a fullback is doing things other than blocking. Alabama didn’t use him much as a runner, but he can run. Back in 2012, he showed some niftiness and ability to cut; that was before an ACL injury. Fowler c. 2014 didn’t look like the same sort of mover to me. In the games I saw (fullback footage is not easy to find, and my time is limited), he aligned both as a fullback and as a wing, but not in-line. The only times I saw him (in 2014) as the lone setback were designed quarterback runs. He looked like a possibly decent receiver who ran mostly very simple routes (flat, curl), and I didn’t see enough in pass pro to say anything semi-useful.
The dumb comparison I’d make is to Whisenhunt’s fullback in San Diego in 2013, Le’Ron McClain, and not just because they both suited up for the Crimson Tide. McClain is listed at 6’0/260 to Fowler’s 5’11/254; close enough for me, and more similar to each other than to Jackie Battle (listed at 6’2/240). McClain always seemed to me like the sort of player who got people more excited about what he’d once done than what he did regularly. Outside of 2008, he never had more than 46 carries in a season. For Whisenhunt in San Diego, he had 11 carries and 2 receptions while playing about 12% of the time (Battle last year played 11.6% of the offensive plays). Fowler’s ceiling is probably somewhat higher than that, but I’d put it at around 20 carries and 10 grabs, basically double what Battle did last year, while playing 20% of the snaps. More likely, though, his usage will look a lot like Battle’s did last year.
Fowler is not the only fullback in camp. The Titans also added LSU’s Connor Neighbors, I guess to have another fullback. My writeup on him in the UDFA post was not really about him, so read Lance Zierlein’s NFL.com profile for an idea of who he is. He was a nice fullback for the Bayou Bengals, but is smaller than Fowler (listed at 235 by the Titans). I don’t see a spot for him on the team barring injury.
Conclusion-Type Things
The Titans will have a fullback. His name will be Jalston Fowler. His playing time will probably look a lot like Jackie Battle’s did last year. You can safely ignore him for fantasy purposes outside AFC South-only leagues.
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