Now with Jeremi Johnson unsigned in free agency, the Bengals could be heading into the rest of the offseason planning to make Fui Vakapuna as the team's primary fullback. Could be. That's not certain. When it's all said and done, there's still a chance that Johnson could return. In the mean time, it's the team's seventh round pick Vakapuna who will be leading the wreckage in the trenches for Cedric Benson. One of the victims on final cut down day in 2009, Vakapuna was waived and signed onto Arizona's practice squad. When the Bengals hit a shortage of backs with injuries to Benson, they signed Vakapuna off the Cardinals practice squad onto the team's 53-man roster. He was listed as inactive the rest of the season.
But they're not going to make it easy on the former BYU fullback.
On his personal Facebook account, fullback Joe Tronzo says that he's signed with the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday night. Listed as the ninth fullback by Scout Inc, Tronzo is primarily a blocking back that plays special teams. On Louisville's team page, it writes that Tronzo is a "fierce competitor and hard worker... one of the toughest and most physical players on the team... has emerged as one of the toughest blockers on the team... not afraid to put his nose into the defenders' chest."
During his Pro Day, Tronzo "ran the 40-yard dash in 4.70 and 4.64 seconds, had a 32-inch vertical jump, a 10-foot broad jump, a 4.21-second short shuttle, a 6.97-second three-cone drill and 32 bench press repetitions at 225 pounds."