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Former Philadelphia Eagles head coach and current Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly had a great quote about the problem with recruiting fullbacks dating back to his time at the University of New Hampshire.
“How do you tell a kid to come play fullback?” Kelly asked rhetorically. “Do you say ‘Hey, come here and play and you’ll be two inches shorter when you leave,’ because that’s not a very enticing recruiting pitch.”
Playing fullback has been a thankless job for decades, yet some NFL players still turn it into an art form and Sports Illustrated’s Connor Orr picked Denver Broncos fullback Michael Burton as the most underrated player on the roster in 2024.
“I was planning on making this a Jaleel McLaughlin appreciation post but kept seeing Burton absolutely destroying people,” Orr wrote. “I go back to McLaughlin’s first career touchdown last season against the Washington Commanders, and Burton clocked two separate defenders on a path of relentlessness. Burton also made quite possibly the most taxing downfield block of the 2023 season. After picking up a blitzing linebacker against the Los Angeles Chargers, he sprinted almost half the football field to pave the way to the end zone for Lil’Jordan Humphrey.”
Burton’s Journeyman Career Brings Him to Denver
Burton, 6-foot and 247 pounds, is entering his 10th NFL season in 2024.
It’s a career that saw Burton taken out of Rutgers in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions and set him off on a career where he’s played for six teams, including one Super Bowl champion.
Burton played two seasons with the Lions, two seasons with the Chicago Bears, one season with the Commanders, one season with the New Orleans Saints and two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he played in all 17 regular-season games and all three postseason games in 2022 on the way to a 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.
Burton’s NFL career has been almost entirely thankless when it comes to stats — in 130 career games he has 35 carries for 71 rushing yards and 1 touchdown along with 21 receptions for 121 yards and 1 touchdown.
Burton has also had to prove himself at every stop in the second half of his career — he’s played on one-year contracts every year since 2019 and should pass $9 million in career earnings in 2024.
Are NFL Fullbacks Making a Comeback?
Don’t look now, but fullbacks might be making a comeback.
The 2023 NFL All-Pro Team featured fullbacks for the first time since 2015, with San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk was selected to the first team and Baltimore Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard was selected to the second team.
While Burton might not have an All-Pro selection in his future, making the Pro Bowl isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
The Broncos haven’t had a player rush for over 1,000 yards in a single season since Phillip Lindsay in 2019, so if Burton were to pave the way for Javonte Williams or Jaleel McLaughlin or even rookie Audric Estime to hit that mark it would make sense to see a longtime veteran like Burton finally get some recognition.
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