OWINGS MILLS, Md. — It's relatively common for a high-school football player to see time on both sides of the ball — a wide receiver doubling as a cornerback, for example, or a running back playing linebacker on the side.

But in college, such players become few and far between. And in the NFL this season, there was really only one.

"I think it’s fun doing both," Baltimore Ravens fullback and defensive lineman Patrick Ricard told USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday. "It’d be weird not doing it."

Teammates call him "Project Pat," and he's an undrafted 300-pounder from a tiny town in Massachusetts. He was recently named to the Pro Bowl at fullback, where he's helped pave the way for Baltimore's record-setting rushing attack. But he also rotates in along the defensive line and plays regularly on special teams.

According to snap count data recorded by Football Outsiders, Ricard was the only player in the NFL this season to play at least 100 snaps in all three phases of the game. He's become a truly unique player — and a vital, yet oft-forgotten, part of Baltimore's success in 2019.

"I don’t know if people see players like Pat Ricard on a week-to-week basis," offensive coordinator Greg Roman said Wednesday. "I mean, how many fullbacks are 305 pounds?"

Entering Baltimore's divisional-round matchup against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night, Ricard's season statistics are meager but expansive: Eight catches for 47 yards and a touchdown on offense. Nine tackles, one sack, one forced fumble and one pass defended on defense. (He's also blocked a kick on special teams, for good measure.)

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It was Roman who first approached the 25-year-old about the possibility of playing both ways, when Ricard was an undrafted defensive lineman out of Maine in 2017. The Ravens' old fullback, Kyle Juszczyk, had just signed a contract with the San Francisco 49ers. And none of the players Baltimore hoped would replace him had stood out.

"I was in the hallway, just going to my meetings and everything, and G-Ro came up to me," Ricard recalled. "He just said, 'Hey, we’re going to have you try to rep at fullback. It’s just going to be 90-lead. You’re just going to line up behind the quarterback, go lid up to the Mike (linebacker).'"

So that's what Ricard did at practice that day. And when he shed an oncoming defensive end on his way to the linebacker, he caught the coaching staff's attention.

From that point forward, he said, playing on both sides of the ball has been "all I've known" in the NFL. His versatility is part of the reason why the Ravens recently signed him to a two-year contract extension, which NFL Network reported is worth $7.3 million.

"He does stuff that no one else does around the league," teammate Nick Boyle said. "Playing both sides is something you hear in high school. You don’t really hear that in college, and you never hear about it in the NFL."

According to Football Outsiders, Ricard was on the field for 30.9% of Baltimore's offensive snaps, 23.1% of the special teams snaps and 14.6% of the defensive snaps in 2019. The only other NFL player who's come close to those figures is Elandon Roberts of the New England Patriots, a linebacker who also played 5% of his team's snaps as a fullback.

Ricard's college coaches say they aren't surprised that the 6-foot-3, 300-pounder has taken to his unique role in the NFL. He played linebacker and running back at David Prouty High School in Spencer, Massachusetts — a school that rarely produces football players in a town of just 11,000 — and they recruited him as a possible tight end or defensive end. Their defense needed more help at the time, so they played him at end.

After a redshirt season at Maine, a Football Championship Subdivision school, Ricard quickly earned playing time and emerged as a starter. He also added about 15 to 30 pounds to his frame with each year, making himself more difficult to block. His weight, however, never dampened his athleticism.

"There are just some guys that whether they got steel pipes in their bones or whatever, they just carry more weight but don’t look it," former Maine coach Jack Cosgrove said. "He’s one of those guys."

By his senior year, Ricard had become so dominant as a defensive lineman that Joe Harasymiak, who took over for Cosgrove in 2016, said the team had to hold him out of standard inside-run drills. Otherwise, he would blow up his blocker and "literally ruin it."

"Or we’d have to script it — and this is probably the first time he’s going to hear this — we would script it to run away from him, so we could leave him in and it wasn’t a big deal that we were taking Pat out again," said Harasymiak, who is now an assistant at Minnesota.

Though Ricard's weight has fluctuated significantly over the years, he said he is now a surprisingly lean 300 pounds.

"It’s very deceptive," he said proudly.

One of the challenges of his dual role is that he needs to be large enough to take on double teams as a lineman, but agile enough to catch passes from Lamar Jackson out of the backfield. He also has to split his time between offensive and defensive meetings, and study three different game plans every week.

"It’s a credit to him that he’s able to master all of those on a week-in and week-out basis," Roman said.

Ricard didn't set out to be a two-way player in the NFL ("I was just trying to make the team," he said) but he believes there might be more players like him on the way. Players such as Roberts and the New Orleans Saints' Taysom Hill are evidence of how valuable it is to be versatile, he said. In a way, having a player who can play multiple positions well can even save teams a spot on their active rosters come Sunday.

"I think you’re going to start seeing it more and more," Ricard said.

Others, though, aren't so sure.

"It’s a trend if people can do it," Boyle said. "I don’t think a lot of people can do what he does."

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

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