ORCHARD PARK — When told the fullback is making an NFL comeback, Reggie Gilliam’s response is succinct.
“Where did it go?”
OK, so the fullback never really left. It went through different incarnations over the years until it seemed on the verge of extinction as teams turned to pass-heavy, spread-out, receiver-dominant offenses.
Now the position is becoming more prevalent again as defenses have gotten lighter in response to spread offenses. And Gilliam’s Buffalo Bills are among the teams leading the trend.
A year after using a sixth offensive lineman at the highest rate in the league, the Bills are among the NFL leaders in extra tight end usage. So why wouldn’t they rank near the top in fullback usage too?
The Bills rank sixth in two-back sets at 20.4%. And Gilliam is averaging a career-high 13.3 offensive snaps per game through the first three weeks, on pace to have nearly 100 more plays than any time in his career.
“When you’re scheming up a team, there’s always one free hitter,” Gilliam told GNN Sports. “There’s always one guy you can’t block. You throw a fullback in there, he takes care of that free hitter. … So I think that the fullback is just like the garbage man — he really just picks up any trash.”
There was a time when fullbacks weren’t just runners. They were bigger backs picking up tough yards between the tackles. Younger fans might find it hard to believe players like Jim Brown, Franco Harris and Larry Csonka were fullbacks.
Gilliam stands firm on his belief they were running backs.
That’s because the position he grew up watching had already transitioned. There were fullbacks like Larry Centers or Tony Richardson who were superb receiving backs, but the advent of the I formation made fullbacks a smaller sixth offensive lineman.
The fullbacks of the 1990s were mostly 260-point steamrollers who rarely got the ball and lived to pave the way for running backs. Gilliam’s belief stems from high school, when he played running back as a straight-ahead power runner.
But when Gilliam wanted to attend Toledo as a walk-on, he realized the team already had running backs like Kansas City’s Kareem Hunt. So coach Jason Candle told Gilliam that if he wanted to try out, he would have to change positions.
“When I was a running back, I was really my own fullback,” Gilliam said. “The only difference is now I just don’t have the ball. I read the gaps, I read it just like the running back does. We have the same keys, the same landmarks, but I’m just picking up the free guys.”
After the Bills released Patrick DeMarco ahead of the 2020 season, Gilliam made Buffalo’s active roster as an undrafted free agent. Since then the Bills have used him in spurts, playing 17% of the 2021 snaps under offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and 9% under Ken Dorsey the following year.
Gilliam’s use started to pick up again under Joe Brady late last year. Through the first 12 games, Gilliam played 49 offensive snaps. He never played double-digit snaps and had two games in which he got none.
But after Week 13 and through the playoffs, Gilliam played at least 11 snaps in eight of the final nine games, getting a total of 125. When Gilliam’s contract expired and he was negotiating a new deal with the Bills, they provided assurance his role was going to be similar to the end of the season.
Fullback usage across the league has actually fallen from 9.3% last year to 8.6% this year. But a big reason why is Baltimore’s five-time Pro Bowler Patrick Ricard has been injured. And after playing two backs at an NFL-high 40.2% of the snaps last year, the Ravens have only done so on two plays total this year.
Four teams — Chargers, Dolphins, 49ers and Seahawks — are using two backs over 30% of the time this season. The Seahawks are among three teams that have already done so on more plays in the first three games than they did all of last year.
And it’s making defenses adjust, including the Bills. After playing at least five defensive backs over 97% of the time from 2022-2024, the Bills have used three linebackers nearly 22% of the time this year.
“It’s unique in terms of the defenses you might get with (three tight ends) on the field or a fullback on the field than if you’re in (three wide receivers) or (two tight ends),” Brady said. “It can be a Rolodex, it can be a little bit of everything. But with (three tight ends) or (two running backs), they have to fit a lot of gaps. … It’s not something we’ll be in every week, but it’s something we’ll evaluate every week and teams are going to have to prepare for.”
Gilliam is aware of the irony that he’s more athletically similar to the fullbacks he deemed running backs than big hammers he watched as a kid. Fullbacks now have to be able to catch the ball and line up as a tight end at times, although Gilliam still believes it’s much easier to be a lead blocker with a headstart out of the backfield.
But despite the reemergence of the position, there were only 12 on opening-day NFL rosters. They are aware few fullbacks are household names to casual fans and San Francisco All-Pro Kyle Juszczyk joked to Gilliam last year about starting a “Fullback U” camp like 49ers’ George Kittle does for tight ends or Von Miller’s Pass Rush Summitt.
“There’s a lot of pride in it,” Gilliam said. “But it’s also another thing, like, nobody really even knows all the fullbacks in the league. Most people can name every starting tight end. … You can look on Twitter and people are like, ‘How many fullbacks are even in the league? It’s only Kyle Juszczyk and Pat Ricard.’”