Silver And Black Pride
Veteran tight end Ian Thomas, rookies JJ Pegues, Pat Conroy are options in Las Vegas Raiders’ backfield
The Silver & Black’s storied history of deploying effective fullbacks came to an end last season. The 2024 season was the first time since 1984 where a traditional fullback wasn’t on the 53-man roster.
And the history wasn’t just relegated to burly hammerhead lead blocking types, either. There were the more agile ball carrier/pass catcher types mixed into Raiders lore.
Heading into a 2025 campaign under new general manager John Spytek and head coach Pete Carroll, there’s potential for the old-school position — a dying breed in today’s NFL — to be absent once again. While Carroll has historically had a fullback on his roster during his Seattle Seahawks days, his chosen offensive coordinator Chip Kelly doesn’t share the same philosophy.
The Raiders’ training camp and preseason games will provide an answer soon enough if fullback is indeed alive or dead, thus, I’ll just use “lead blocker”. As in, let’s explore who’ll join prized 2025 NFL Draft pick Ashton Jeanty in the backfield as the lead blocker for the sixth overall selection.
At this juncture, there are three potentials: Veteran tight end Ian Thomas, undrafted free agent Patrick Conroy, and 2025 sixth-round pick JJ Pegues.
At 6-foot-4 and 260 pounds, Thomas brings plenty of size. And along with his seven years in the NFL, brings plenty of savvy, too. The Indiana-product arrived to the league as a fourth-round pick (101st overall) int he 2018 draft by the Carolina Panthers.
Outside of his rookie campaign (where he caught 36 passes for 333 yard and two touchdowns), Thomas has been more blocker than pass catcher. His participation rate on offense the last two seasons in Carolina were meager (eight receptions for 63 yards and two touchdowns on 216 and 94 offensive snaps, in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
The caveat to those two seasons for Thomas, however, is the 12 games played in 2023 and five games in 2024 were the least he’s played with the Panthers. Before that, the 29-year-old played in all games from 2018 to 2022.
A return to form to his ability to block in 2022 and prior, along with the best trait of availability, will be instrumental to Thomas’ Raiders roster chances. Whether he’s lined up in front of Jeanty in the backfield or as an in-line tight end that turns into lead blocker, Thomas has shown the ability effectively do so. He just has to prove it again in Las Vegas.
I initially dove into the potential for both Conroy and Pegues to play the lead blocker role back in early May.
Of the two, Conroy has the most experience in the backfield lined up as a traditional fullback at Old Dominion as he was an H-back in college who dabbled as tight end and fullback. Standing at 6-foot-2 and 240 pounds, Las Vegas’ official team website lists the undrafted rookie as a tight...
