Can Trevon Wesco be the New York Jets’ fullback? (Film)

Mike LaFleur's 49ers relied heavily on the fullback position. Is Trevon Wesco capable of handling that role for the New York Jets? When Mike Maccagnan's New York Jets drafted Trevon Wesco with the 121st overall pick in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL draft, their obvious goal for him was to settle into a role as a blocking specialist. Through two years, the results have been mixed. Wesco has earned a decent amount of playing time (12.8 snaps per game over 28 appearances) and has been far from awful as a blocker, recording plenty of impressive reps, but his blocking has been inconsistent overall. The inconsistent nature of Wesco's performance level is backed up by the fact that the Jets have not shown full confidence in him. They decreased his snap count in 2020 compared to 2019 (12.2 snaps per game to 13.4) and then signed Tyler Kroft - another blocking specialist - in the 2021 offseason. Decreased playing time, the addition of a veteran who plays the same role, and the exodus of the general manager who drafted him are all bad signs for Wesco's job security, but there is one thing that has his prospects of making the team looking good in spite of all of that: Mike LaFleur's offense. Over his four years in San Francisco, LaFleur was part of a 49ers offense that utilized the fullback position more than any other team in the league, making Kyle Juszczyk a regular member of their starting lineup. Juszczyk started 51 of his 58 games with the 49ers from 2017-20, leading all fullbacks by a massive margin with 1,918 snaps played over that span (33.1 per game). Even when Juszczyk went out, the 49ers still utilized the fullback position heavily. Across a four-game span with Juszczyk out of action due to injury in 2019, San Francisco had tight end Ross Dwelley line up at fullback for 18.3 snaps per game. While that is a big decline from Juszczyk's average of 32.4 snaps per game that season, it would still rank as one of the highest marks in the league at the position. An average of 18.3 snaps per game would have ranked third among fullbacks in 2019, behind Juszczyk and C.J. Ham (22.1). The fullback was also a big part of the Falcons offense that LaFleur coached for as an assistant under offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan from 2015-16. Patrick DiMarco ranked sixth among fullbacks with 20.2 snaps per game in Atlanta's 2016 Super Bowl season. DiMarco ranked third with 23.1 snaps per game in 2015. If LaFleur carries over this aspect of his Atlanta and San Francisco offenses to New York, the Jets are going to need a fullback, and considering that Joe Douglas has yet to make any additions at the position this offseason, Wesco is the best option for the fullback role on the roster. Wesco has played 97 snaps at fullback in his two-year career, an average of 3.5 snaps per game. The Jets experimented heavily with Wesco at fullback near the end of 2019, lining him up in the backfield for 11.0 snaps per game over the final three weeks of his rookie season. The increased usage did not carry over into 2020, but Wesco still played a little bit of fullback in his second season as he manned the position on 45 snaps over 12 games (3.8 per game). Is Wesco capable of handling the fullback role in Mike LaFleur's offense? Let's take a look at some of his reps in the role. Great fullback rep here from Wesco against All-Pro linebacker Darius Leonard. Wesco leads Frank Gore on an inside zone handoff to the left side. He gets a good jump off the snap and beats Leonard to the B-gap. Leonard lowers his shoulder and looks to "squeeze" the run - muddy up the running lane by knocking Wesco inside - but his attempt is fairly weak and proves unsuccessful as Wesco comes in aggressively, gets lower than Leonard, and blasts Leonard's inside half to plow him out of the lane. Mixed bag from Wesco here against the WILL (weak-side) linebacker, Bobby Okereke. Wesco fails to create movement on Okereke and has a stalemate with him at the point of attack, clogging the intended gap. However, Wesco is not moved off of his spot and keeps Okereke sealed to the outside, preventing him from making a play on Gore and giving Gore the opportunity to cut the run back. Despite the positive result, that could have been a better rep from Wesco. His hands are wide as he comes into the block, taking away his ability to generate movement. You would like to see him keep his hands tight and drive the linebacker as he did against Leonard in the first clip. A little bit of a mental lapse from Wesco here. He heads to the second level and looks to block the SAM (strong-side) linebacker who is already engaged with left tackle Conor McDermott, leaving the MIKE (middle) linebacker (Leonard) unblocked to stuff Gore. Wesco deserves some slack since McDermott was beaten and his man probably would have made the stop on Gore even if Wesco blocked Leonard, so it was somewhat of a pick-your-poison type situation, but you still would have liked for Wesco to notice Leonard and pick him up rather than leaving him untouched. Pretty good rep from Wesco here as he draws a size mismatch against a defensive back (213-pound safety Khari Willis). As he failed to do on the second clip above, Wesco keeps his hands tight this time, and he is able to create movement on the defender. Wesco does his job to create room for Gore, but Greg Van Roten and Connor McGovern allow the 3-technique and the backside linebacker, respectively, to get to the front side of the play. Wesco defeats another defensive back. He lines up directly behind the left tackle and works into the C-gap. Wesco keeps his hands low and tight and fires them directly up into the chest of the smaller defender, gaining control and driving him way outside of the numbers with a little extra seasoning at the end. Wesco is beaten by De'Vondre Campbell on this 4th-and-1 play, leading to Le'Veon Bell being stuffed for a turnover on downs, but it's not entirely Wesco's fault. As Wesco is climbing to take on the WILL linebacker in the A-gap, he trips over Alex Lewis, who gets knocked back a bit by the 4i-technique and drops his outside foot straight into Wesco's path. Just a bad coincidence. The trip leaves Wesco careening forward and Campbell dips under him to penetrate the backfield and make the stop. Perhaps Wesco could have had better spatial awareness to keep his feet clean, and maybe he could taken a harder angle to the inside to seal Campbell outside, but ultimately, this one can be chalked up to an unlucky trip, which is what a lot of trench battles in the NFL come down to. Lined up behind the left tackle, Wesco takes one step forward to sell the counter and then follows the pulling left guard (Lewis). Lewis takes the edge while Wesco aims to take the gap between Lewis and the right tackle (Brandon Shell). Wesco identifies the WILL linebacker sneaking into the gap. Noticing that the linebacker is taking a patient approach and does not appear ready for contact, Wesco gets uber-aggressive, taking a few steps to charge up before lowering his outside shoulder straight into the linebacker. Wesco creates plenty of movement. Not a good rep from Wesco this time. Wesco works to the backside B-gap. He approaches the linebacker in an upright position with completely inactive hands, leaving his body exposed. The linebacker easily disengages Wesco to create an angle to the football. I would say Wesco is an okay fullback as of right now. He has great size (267 pounds), solid agility for that size, above-average power, and a high level of aggressiveness. Wesco brings those tools together to record an excellent rep every now and then, but his technique hasn't been consistent enough for him to be a true difference-making blocker. He is often too aggressive, lunging into blocks and not using good hand placement. It is also important to note that Wesco has not showed anything as a receiving or rushing option yet. He has two carries and three receptions in his career. Wesco is good enough at the fullback position to make the team and remain the Jets' top option there, but he has not yet been good enough to be worth putting in the backfield for 20-or-so snaps per game. Continuing to put him back there for a few snaps every now and then would be fine, but Wesco needs to show more blocking consistency and more capability with the football in his hands before he can be one of the most heavily utilized fullbacks in the league. If Mike LaFleur really wants to use a fullback as often as the Falcons and 49ers did under Kyle Shanahan, he will either need a better option than Wesco or have to be extremely confident in Wesco's development. Perhaps the fact that the Jets did not add a pure fullback is a sign that LaFleur is not planning on carrying over his former teams' heavy fullback usage. Tyler Kroft is an interesting candidate for the fullback role. In 2020, the Bills had Kroft line up in the backfield on 5.7 snaps per game, making up 19.1% of his offensive snaps. Kroft proved to be an effective blocker on the move when lining up in the backfield, but all of those snaps were in an H-back type of role - he did not have any true fullback reps in which he lined up directly behind the quarterback. So, even with Kroft around, Wesco is still the best option for snaps in the classic fullback role. So, let's sum it up. This is a lot of words about the Jets' fullback/third-string tight end on a Saturday afternoon. Trevon Wesco is a decent blocker at the fullback position who still has the potential to become a very good one if he can block with good technique more consistently. He has a lot of desirable traits for the position as a blocker and could become a legitimate difference-maker with some more development - but of course, being that he is entering the third year of his career and will turn 26 in September, he is running out of time to progress. It's also worth wondering if Wesco has untapped potential as a pass-catcher. Route-running will never be his strength, but he was supremely elusive after the catch at West Virginia, ranking second among FBS tight ends with 12 broken tackles after the catch in 2018. We have yet to see the Jets give Wesco enough opportunities to showcase whether he is capable of translating that elusiveness to the NFL. That's all just projection, though. While he may have some untapped potential both as a blocker and receiver, at the moment Wesco is a decent blocker who has shown no on-ball ability - and that still makes him the best fullback option on the roster. Mike LaFleur needs to adjust his fullback usage accordingly. With their current personnel, the Jets would not be wise to use the fullback as much as the Falcons and 49ers did. Giving Wesco his usual cameo appearances makes sense - and perhaps if he thrives in LaFleur's offense early, the Jets can boost his snap counts over time. Testing the waters with Kroft back there could also be a worthwhile endeavor. However, until one of them proves they are capable of doing so, it would likely be an unwise decision to feature Wesco or Kroft at fullback as heavily as the 49ers and Falcons featured Juszczyk and DiMarco.