There was a lot of buzz about the number of reps fullback Ben VanSumeren got against the Cleveland Browns with 19 snaps for over 30% of available playtime. With that said though, Week 2 sure as heck looked to me like a lot of depth players fighting for spots. Sure, that’s not unusual, but it does put niche roles like fullback in a weird spot. No, it might be more meaningful to see the team’s intent when they’re looking at the starting and “near” starting lineups.
Like we saw in Week 1. What did those reps have to say about VanSumeren?
To the Film!
This time I double and triple checked I had the right video so that’s some good viewing of fullback Ben VanSumeren. For my analysis, let’s do it in two parts. What I think about VanSumeren, and what I think the snaps themselves say.
For my player analysis, there seems to be decent amount of athleticism and versatility. I didn’t see any “pop” that suggests overwhelming force or blocking ability, but the snaps from this game didn’t allow for a ton of opportunity either. VanSumeren looked good as a move blocker and again, versatility.
On the snaps, what you saw above is VanSumeren getting playing time with every quarterback and wave of the offense. Notably, when VanSumeren was with the first string, he was trusted to block for James Cook. Perhaps even more notable were the frequent snaps out wide, including reps with a route and even a catch.
With the preseason intended to evaluate players and to some extent the scheme, I personally find it intriguing that VanSumeren was allowed to take reps from other players, with his receiving snaps coming with Shane Buechele and what is presumably the players at the very back end. To me that suggests they’re willing to lose evaluations of those players to find out what they have in VanSumeren.
You might be thinking two things right now to scoff at me. Skare, what do you mean “find out what they have?” he’s been in the league since 2023. You may also be thinking; he’s the only fullback getting a lot of reps, of course he’s their guy.
On that second thing, there’s no guarantee a team has a fullback on the roster at all, being one of the most hit or miss positions in the league. On the first thing, while VanSumeren is a veteran player, he was originally signed to play linebacker with the Philadelphia Eagles. In 2024 they started to let him play fullback, but he was lost to injury in November after having logged only 22 snaps on offense. The 2025 plan was to allow him to remain at fullback, but he was injured and lost for the season on the opening kickoff in Week 1.
VanSumeren did play fullback in college, but he’s not remotely a known commodity at the position in the NFL. That means there’s likely some untapped potential and VanSumeren already looks the part of a fullback through preseason action.
Add up all the above and the fact that he also played 11 snaps on special teams, and it seems to me that all signs point toward a Ben VanSumeren fullback roster lock.
