A year ago the Australasian/American connection was being swooned by the unlikely tale of the rugby league player who walked away from his sport at the height of his abilities to chase his dream of playing in the NFL.

A year later Jarryd Hayne is back in the NRL kicking field goals for the Gold Coast Titans having played eight times for the San Francisco 49ers. But while Hayne was emerging onto the gridiron scene with an impressive preseason, another fella from down under was also working on the transition between the oval ball sports of the Commonwealth and the oval ball sports of North America. And Jarryd Hayne never bagged himself one of these, now did he?

Touchdown.

Paul Lasike didn’t make the Arizona Cardinals’ roster last season but he did find himself on the Chicago Bears’ practice squad. Then he wasn’t… but that was only while a few visa details were worked out. Lasike spent the season there learning his trade and this time around he’s back and competing for a spot in the NFL.

His story is a curious one. He went to America after graduating high school as a well regarded rugby prospect in the Waikato and while he was in the US, he was offered a scholarship to play rugby for Brigham Young University. He took it up. After his first year there, aged 19, Lasike took two years off to complete his Mormon mission and that found him in Alabama where he began to get a handle on the sport we know in NZ as gridiron. Upon returning to BYU, he started playing both rugby and gridiron. Pretty soon he was invited onto the football team with a full scholarship.

Lasike would rush for 843 yards with 322 receiving yards on top of that in his three years playing for BYU. 12 touchdowns in that lot as well. He’d go undrafted after leaving college, but then came the opportunity with the Cardinals, which became an opportunity with the Chicago Bears which became a futures contract and now has him on the verge of the National Football League itself. Again, it’s an incredible story. Have a read of a thing he did for The Players’ Tribune a year ago for it all in his words.

With the Bears, his role has changed a bit. He’s not quite the explosive athlete to make it as a running back and there’s way too much competition there anyway. But the Bears aren’t looking for that. They want a fullback.

The fullback is something of a specialist position in American football. Or maybe ‘outdated’ would be a better word. Their job is that of a backfield blocker, often clearing the way for the running back behind them to come storming through. With that, you don’t need to be that quick or agile, the role is more about power and shielding. Protecting the quarterback from lead rushers, breaking a hole in the defensive line for the RB, that kinda thing. However with the league trending more and more towards passing in the last decade, the fullback position has become a lot rarer and many teams don’t bother carrying one at all, relying instead on the blocking abilities of their regular running backs.

The Chicago Bears are one of those teams that have shirked a FB in recent times but in an attempt to pump up a running game that has usually been a strength of theirs but showed signs of slipping in 2015 and that was before Matt Forte left for the Jets, they're looking to get back in the fullback game. Their RB group is likely to be led now by second year player Jeremy Langford, who tabbed 537 rush yards last season at 3.6 per pop.

Here’s Brad Briggs for the Chicago Tribune: “Adding a fullback would allow the Bears to reduce the formation and play power football while giving quarterback Jay Cutler an easy option in the flat on play action. A fullback would be an aid to the young running backs. While some scouts believed Matt Forte ran better from a one-back set, Jeremy Langford played in a pro system at Michigan State. Imagine rookie Jordan Howard with a fullback at the goal line. There's no window dressing needed, and with Kyle Long back at right guard, that's a lot of beef in the ground game.”

Paul Lasike: "Dowell texted me (early in the offseason) and said: 'We're installing a 21 (two backs, one tight end) personnel package and we have you in mind and we believe in you. We want to give you this opportunity and see what you can make of it.' The door is wide open and I really have to take advantage of it."

Dowell there would be Dowell Loggains, the Bears’ new offensive coordinator, who served as their quarterback coach last season and replaces Adam Gase, who took up the head coach role at the Miami Dolphins in January.

According to a piece on Lasike on Scout.com back in June, Paul had been getting in reps with the first team in “power run situations, particularly in short-yardage and goal-line sets”. That makes sense for his position, though Lasike also offers a very handy bit of versatility with his ability as a catcher, largely due to his rugby skills no doubt. If his relative inexperience holds him back, his extra layers give him an advantage.

It’s hard to say when you’re dealing with a position that isn’t especially common, though Lasike did appear to be the front-runner for the roster, at least initially. In seeking some added competition, however, the Bears added veteran Darrel Young to the preseason group.

Right now we’re three games through preseason and the conversation seems to be less about whether Lasike beats out Young, but whether there’s a spot for either of them at all. In those three games, Lasike has only played 16 total snaps on offence – he and Young split the four fullback sets in their third game. What does give Lasike an advantage is that he has been a regular in their special teams unit as well, and if he can lock down a spot there then it’ll be easier for them to carry a player they won’t hardly use otherwise. 32 snaps on special teams all up, he led the squad with 10 in their third game. On the whole, the situation could be more encouraging but making the NFL is supposed to be hard.

For the record, Windy City Gridiron are still picking Paul Lasike to make the 53 man active roster, though with a few notes of concern:

“Lasike is one of those guys fighting for a job, because I’m not sure how much the Bears plan of going with a dual backfield set. On Saturday they only had 4 plays with a fullback, instead going with 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) or 12 personnel (1RB, 2TE, 2WR) most of the time. If the Bears shun this position, then I think they take a 4th tight end.”

Rather than getting overly technical here about the competition for places, here’s Bears Wire on the USA Today network summing it all up. Read the full thing for their analysis on each of the two dudes (Lasike and Young):

“Overall, Lasike has been the more consistent of the two so far this preseason, but he’s also had more opportunities to show what he can do. Because their live opportunities are limited, their practice performances could go a long way in determining who makes this team, but at this point, if the Bears do keep a fullback, it’s still Lasike’s spot to lose.”

Of course, we won’t truly know what Lasike’s chances are until the rosters are finalised over the next week. August 30 (USA time, obvs.) is the date by which teams need to have cut their rosters to 75 men and by September 3 that number becomes 53 players, comprising the active roster. There’s a day after that for the waiver process to finish and after that the practice squads can be assembled.

Which means that roster cuts are already well underway. In between the last preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs and their next and final one against the Cleveland Browns, that roster will have been cut to those 75 players and the process is well underway with ten players already cut by the time of publishing this piece. Among those players…

So yeah. Keep a good eye on that last preseason game because it’ll either be Paul Lasike’s last for a little while or it’ll (hopefully) be the one that confirms his place on the active roster. It’s all up in the air for now but we can keep our fingers crossed that there’ll be a kiwi in the National Football League this season – and if there is then you can be sure we’ll keep ya all the way up to date on that. COME ON PAUL, YOU CAN DO IT!