When Mark Robinson lined up at fullback yesterday, his teammates like Patrick Queen couldn’t believe it—even though they knew. A former college running back, Robinson told reporters that coaches only told him yesterday he would play fullback. He did say that he knew the team had a white practice jersey for him—indicating an offensive player.
Robinson has played linebacker since late in his college career, including his entire time with the Steelers. My guess is a lot of his teammates didn’t even know he played running back in a prior life. Before yesterday’s practice, the Steelers never publicly displayed any sign they might consider him on offense.
Which is probably what was behind their surprise. “We were talking about it in meetings, and I thought they were joking until I saw him in the offensive room,”, Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quotes Patrick Queen as saying of Mark Robinson at fullback. “It was crazy to see him on the other side of the ball”.
After practice, HC Mike Tomlin downplayed the usage of Robinson at the fullback position. As one would expect, he talked about versatility and the more you can do being an asset. But such pursuit of versatility for a veteran from a coaching staff, as often as not, can be a bad sign.
If your coaches want to see what else you can do, that probably means you’re not doing enough. A couple years back, when the Steelers had no place for Kendrick Green, they experimented with him at fullback. Now, this is different, because fullback isn’t entirely alien to Robinson.
But he is in a stiff competition for his roster spot after Pittsburgh drafted Carson Bruener. Robinson has transformed himself into a special teams ace, which they expect Bruener to be, so their flirtations at fullback may well be an indicator of the status of his position on the roster.
Just because the Steelers drafted Carson Bruener, though, doesn’t mean he’ll earn a spot on the roster. Right now, whether he has fullback in his repertoire or not, Robinson is the better player. Although the Steelers rarely use him on defense, he is a heavy hitter, as he has reminded this camp. That’s why they drafted him, and some hoped he would become the next Vince Williams.
Pittsburgh has developed a deep inside linebacker group, though, especially at the top. Patrick Queen pairs with Payton Wilson in the starting lineup, and behind them they have Malik Harrison and Cole Holcomb. Similar to Robinson’s fullback experiment, Holcomb has picked up special teams to help his roster case.
In theory, the Steelers would love to have a fullback, though nobody, including Robinson, really qualifies as a traditional performer in that role. The closest is undrafted rookie DJ Thomas-Jones, currently recovering from injury. Kendrick Green certainly wasn’t a fullback. They eventually managed to unload him via trade—is anybody looking for a special teams ace who dabbles at fullback?
