The Fullback Question

I don't know if free agent fullback Leonard Weaver is going to sign with the Eagles or accept a new contract with the Seattle Seahawks and, as of this morning neither does anyone else.

It would depend on what Weaver wants financially and what he wants professionally. Here's the big question if you are Leonard Weaver? Do you want to go to a football team that uses the fullback as often as folks use those 1960s air-raid shelters in their basements? If fullbacks were cans of condensed milk, they reach their expiration date in Philadelphia long before being taken off the shelf.

Here's some numbers Weaver might be considering. (Of course, none of the numbers matter as much as the numbers on the contract, but nevertheless). In his two real seasons as a regular since missing the 2006 season, Weaver carried the ball a total of 63 times in 30 games, or just about twice a game.

That's hardly overwhelming (he caught 59 passes in that span, however) and it's really not overwhelming when you consider that in the last three seasons, Eagles fullbacks have carried the ball 53 times in 48 games, or just a touch over one carry per game.

So, you're a 26-year-old, looking to go somewhere you'll get noticed, looking to get a decent payday that might lead to the next contract in which -- after getting noticed -- you have a chance to make better money.

So, that's the question for a fullback: Go to the Eagles, a good, solid football team, and disappear. Or go somewhere else and perhaps make a name for yourself. What would you do? It might be the same answer Weaver arrives at.