On the Rams’ first offensive play of Sunday’s game against the Falcons, Sean McVay pulled back the curtain on a new wrinkle. He lined up Ben Skowronek, who’s traditionally a wide receiver, at fullback in front of Darrell Henderson Jr.
The Rams came out in an I-formation, something rarely seen from McVay’s offense. They don’t have a fullback on the roster and have never really used one, so the ‘I’ is not something McVay has utilized in his five years as a head coach.
But right off the bat, Skowronek hit the hole with a full head of steam as a lead blocker for Henderson. It only went for a 2-yard gain, but McVay set the tone early with this new wrinkle on offense.
Obviously, he didn’t exclusively use Skowronek as a fullback in the I-formation on Sunday. Skowronek still lined up at wide receiver a bunch. But there were probably close to 10 plays where he aligned in the backfield as a fullback, whether it was to block or catch a pass out of the backfield.
Here’s an example of one play where Skowronek caught a pass as a fullback, which helped him get matched up with a defensive lineman. That’s not a race any D-lineman will win, despite Skowronek not being a burner.
It’s easy to see that Skowronek doesn’t look like most fullbacks. He’s 6-foot-3 and 224 pounds with long arms and a high-cut frame. Patrick Ricard, the Ravens’ fullback, is 6-foot-3 and 305 pounds. 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk is 6-1, 235 pounds.
And those two players even look different than fullbacks of 10-15 years ago.
Despite his unusual body type for the position, Skowronek has two things that make him an effective fullback: (relative) athleticism and a willingness to block. Here, he gets outside on a toss play and seals off the linebacker to spring Henderson for a 13-yard gain.
And he’s not afraid to plow into the defense with a head full of steam as a lead blocker. His blocking technique may not be perfect, but the effort is unquestionably there.
After the game, McVay explained what made him comfortable with using Skowronek as a fullback, pointing to his desire to mix up the personnel groupings, despite the fact that Skowronek is still technically a receiver.
“We always feel like there’s different things that you can present and when you’ve got movable pieces,” he said. “Ben enabled us to be able to present some 21 type of looks out of 11 personnel and that’s what some of these guys do in a 21 grouping with fullbacks that are athletic enough and it’s just kind of the inverse of that so we’ll see.”
So will fullback Ben Skowronek remain a wrinkle in the playbook moving forward?
“It didn’t really have anything to do with anything other than we felt like that was the best approach for this week,” McVay continued. “Whether that’s something that we use this coming week will be predicated on how we best feel like we want to try to attack Arizona.”
McVay was pleased with the way Skowronek handled his new, versatile role. A lot was asked of the Rams receiver, and while he only caught two passes for 16 yards – a quiet stat line for a wideout – he had a positive impact on the game as a blocker.
“When you’ve got tough players that you can utilize in a bunch of different ways, really proud of what he did, not surprised,” McVay said. “But he’s just a football player. He can play receiver, he lined up in the eye a handful of times today. I’m really happy to be working with Ben Skowronek.”
This isn’t the first time McVay has mixed things up and tried to evolve as an offensive game planner. Last year, he used Joe Noteboom as a third tight end at times, going with heavy packages when the Rams tried to spark the running game. At the end of the 2020 season, when the Rams were so reliant on 11 personnel, McVay used 12 personnel with two tight ends.
He’s always trying to bring fresh ideas to the offense and while this may not be a strategy that sticks for the rest of the season, it’s good to see McVay trying something new to help get the offense on track.
