The Dolphins continued bolstering their offensive personnel in the free agency period by adding Alec Ingold -- here are five things to know about Miami's new fullback.
1. A Film Guru's Dream
Football junkies love few things more than the classic fullback, especially one with a variety of highlights that showcase a wide range of skills. First, the traditional lead-block to pave the way for a touchdown run:
How about the hops and athletic ability?
Here's further proof of the speed and unique functionality on the wheel route.
We finish where we started, with the classic lead-blocking work.
2. By the Numbers
Fullbacks rarely touch the football, but Ingold has made it count when he's earned the opportunity. The earlier tweet showed Ingold's ability to play in multiple roles and even stretch the field if the matchup calls for it, but he is reliable as a receiver out of the backfield.
Ingold has 28 career catches for 239 yards and three touchdowns. Those stats come courtesy of an 82.4 percent catch rate and 8.5 yards per reception. He also averaged 6.3 yards after the catch.
On 15 carries, Ingold has just 22 yards, but he's been a solid short-yardage conversion back. All of his 15 career runs came with three or fewer yards to gain to move the chains and he converted 10 of them (66.7 percent).
Called upon for pass protection on just 15.9 percent of his passing-down snaps, Ingold's lone pressure allowed in his career was a hurry. He's played 33 career pass-blocking snaps without a sack or QB hit.
3. Bringing Back the Throwback Position
Ingold is one of three fullbacks to play more than 500 snaps since 2019. Undrafted out of Wisconsin, most of Ingold's 577 offensive snaps-played came in his first two seasons as he suffered an ACL injury that caused him to miss the final eight games of the Raiders 2021 season.
During those two full seasons (2019-20), Ingold was graded as Pro Football Focus' seventh- and second-best run-blocking fullback, respectively.
The fullback with the most snaps-played during that span, San Francisco's Kyle Juszczyk (684), played with current Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel the last five seasons.
In addition to the work on offense, Ingold has logged 572 special teams snaps over his three-year career with seven tackles.
Fun fact: the most offensive snaps taken by a Miami Dolphins fullback over the last decade was Jorvorskie Lane in 2012 (302 snaps). Only one time since (Chandler Cox, 2019) has a fullback played more than 100 snaps on a Dolphins offense.
4. He Doesn't Just Do "Fullback Stuff"
The fullback position is largely a thankless job. Raiders quarterback Derek Carr recognized the unique skills Ingold brings to the position, expanding on the multi-faceted role Ingold held in Las Vegas.
"Alec has that speed," Carr said. "When we train, he runs all the routes. He doesn't just run fullback stuff. He runs slants and go's and digs, all kinds of things. He has that old school, like, Lorenzo Neal feel to him, too."
"You've got to be different to play fullback with the way that we run the power and counters and the iso plays," Carr continued. "It's one-on-one, you and that guy in the hole, and if you don't win it's going to be a loss. And more times than not, Alex wins. So I'm trying to give the guy as much praise as I can because he's very vital to us."
5. Adoption Advocate
"We desperately need people like Alec Ingold, that are advocating for children and for every child that is waiting in foster care."
Those were the words of Las Vegas councilman Brian Knudson in this story about Ingold's own adoption and his advocacy for children in foster care.
"As soon as I could comprehend what adoption meant, it was already told to me, you know, it was never a secret," Ingold said. "It was never anything coming out. So it was never a big deal. You know, I knew I looked a little different. I knew I was a little bit bigger than (my parents) were, but at the end of the day, it was just family and that's just how we work."
"At the end of the day, you're focusing on those kids there, their futures and how you can help them the best," he said.
For more analysis, and to hear Ingold talking ball and his new South Florida home, subscribe to the Drive Time Podcast with Travis Wingfield.
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