Fullback? Ask Philbin. He's the one who began this descent into the toilet. He had a FB, but because he preferred short passes over the running game he did away with the position. That wouldn't have been so bad if the o-line was dominant, but Philbin also preferred athletic "finesse" style o-linemen who were not very good at run-blocking. This was okay with Philbin because he didn't want to run the ball anyway. (And, as it turned out, they weren't very good at pass-blocking either, and Tannehill was the most sacked QB in the league during Philbin's reign.) Philbin's o-line was constantly man-handled by tough, physical d-lines, and defenders usually had no problem tackling RBs behind the line of scrimmage.
This offense needs an o-line filled with big, nasty, mean road-graders, a good FB, and a smash-mouth power running game to take the pressure off of the QB. But, Philbin wanted the opposite of that, and now Gase is following in Philbin's footsteps. Gase wants those same finesse o-linemen, he has no FB (even though he sometimes has someone line up as one on occasion), and he publicly admitted after he was hired that he really doesn't want to run the ball much as he prefers the short passes... same as Philbin.
Will Philbin 2.0 (Gase) change his offensive philosophy? I doubt it, which is why I'm looking forward to the next Head Coach for Miami to (hopefully) have a strong running game again. Pre-Philbin, Miami was probably one of the best in the league at converting 3rd and short with linemen such as Long, Incognito, Jerry, and FB Lousaka "Mr Automatic First Down" Polite. I'm not saying that Sparano's o-line was "elite", but it was far superior to anything that Philbin ever fielded. And, under Philbin and Gase (with their shared offensive philosophy and preferred type of o-linemen), Miami has probably had the most 3rd and longs, the fewest 3rd and shorts, and one of the worst 3rd down conversion percentages in the league. (Disclaimer: I don't know the actual stats; just going by the overwhelming number of 3 and outs that I see from their offense.)
