FOXBOROUGH - Reggie Gilliam doesn’t want to hear your fullback slander. But it came in the form of a question he received Tuesday, a question he didn’t allow to reach its completion before interjecting.
“With fullbacks kind of on their way out…”
“I disagree,” Gilliam exclaimed, with a smile. “They’re on the way back up.”
That drew laughter (some of us are easily amused…), but then the question continued, wondering if this dying breed had a support group. Turns out, they do.
“We have a ‘Fullbacks for Life’ Group Chat,” Gilliam confessed. “And it's a bunch of all the current fullbacks and all the legendary fullbacks like Mike Alstott and Lorenzo Neal and those guys. So it's pretty cool being in a group chat with those guys. I actually texted Lorenzo on the side. Once I got his number saved, I was like, ‘Hey, you're my favorite fullback growing up. Like, I love watching you block for the LaDainian Tomlinson, that was my inspiration.’”
Gilliam went on to explain that there are about 40 fullbacks in the chat, and it’s quite active.
“It’s muted on my phone,” he chuckled.
The 28-year-old (he turns 29 in August) didn’t plan for his football life to turn out this way. He envisioned himself as a touchdown maker and was a damn good running back in high school. But as a walk-on at the University of Toledo, he wouldn’t have been allowed to participate in training camp as a freshman unless he switched positions. With Kareem Hunt already on the roster, Gilliam made the wise decision, and a fullback life was born.
“It was more hard mentally than it was physically, just because, like, I was used to being the guy that had the ball,” Gilliam said of the transition. “But the physical part of it, it's just like playing running back. Honestly, it's the same keys, the same reads. It's just a couple of steps ahead.”
Now entering his 7th year in the league, the choice has paid dividends both career-wise and contractually. Gilliam received $6 million in guaranteed money from the Patriots this offseason, with the potential to make up to $12 million if he lasts the duration of the 3-year deal.
I went back to the origin of our conversation with Gilliam, about why he thinks fullbacks are back in vogue. If you’ve been following the league for as long as I have, you saw how 11 personnel was in vogue for the last decade or so, spurred on by Sean McVay. It being a copycat league, that’s how nearly everyone went. Now? McVay embraced multiple tight ends; the Bills followed, with their own tweak that made sure that Gilliam was a part of their heavier sets, and lo and behold, here we are.
“The league was pass-heavy for so long, and a lot of teams just started going nickel and dime all the time,” Gilliam observed. “So I think offensive coordinators are kind of switching back to that ‘Okay, if you're going to play a 200-pound linebacker, let's put a 250-pound fullback on you and see what you can do. Obviously, it's an advantage for the offense.”
That’s what the Patriots and Josh McDaniels are hoping for. McDaniels has long employed a fullback, and last year, he did his best to get Jack Westover to fill that role. Westover is back, as is last year’s UDFA signing Brock Lampe. This marks the first time Gilliam isn’t