When Caleb McSurdy arrived at the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility last Tuesday around 7 a.m. there was a packet in his locker. It included some plays and a note that said to attend a meeting at 7:30.
That's when the second-year linebacker realized he was going to be running a few plays at fullback during organized team activities.
"It was a lot of fun," said McSurdy, a seventh-round pick last year out of Montana. "Any chance you get to be playing football is great to me, so I was happy to do it."
McSurdy missed all of last season after tearing his Achilles tendon in August. With starting fullback Lawrence Vickers rehabbing from off-season back surgery, the Cowboys have used McSurdy, offensive lineman Kevin Kowalski and tight end Dante Rosario at fullback.
McSurdy worked out at fullback for the Cowboys last year during Montana's pro day so he wasn't completely blind-sided by the note in his locker. But the 23-year-old admits that he hasn't played the position since high school.
"[I felt] a little out of position, I'm not going to lie," McSurdy said. "It was fairly basic what they were asking me to do. It's not a lot unlike a linebacker, you're kind of downhill and initiating the contact."
He added: "It's one of those things that if they were to say, ‘Hey, we want you to be a fullback. We want you to learn that position,' then I'm all in on that. Or if they say they want both, then I'll figure it out. I'll just do whatever I got to do."
McSurdy was drafted to play inside linebacker in Rob Ryan's 3-4 defensive scheme, but with the Cowboys switching to Monte Kiffin's 4-3 alignment, McSurdy, who played in a 4-3 system in college, will play middle linebacker.
"There are definitely some parallels to stuff we ran in college that kind of helped me pick it up a little bit," McSurdy said. "As a linebacker, you don't deal with offensive linemen as much as you do in a 3-4 with the guards uncovered a lot of the time. From an athletic point of view, I lost some weight to be able to move from sideline-to-sideline and back in coverage, because they ask more in the coverage aspect as a 4-3 Mike in this scheme, especially with the Cover-2 stuff.
"But I like it, it's cool."
During his senior year at Montana, the 6-1, 248-pounder recorded 130 tackles en route to earning Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors.
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