Ryan Mueller took a long, mulch-laden path to become Eagles FB – NBC Sports Philadelphia

This offseason, with his football future in question, 24-year-old Ryan Mueller went back to a business he first entered when he was 13. 

He began to mulch. 

Mueller, who was cut from the Chargers’ practice squad last November, desperately wanted to make a return to the NFL, but wanted to have a backup plan too. 

And the spring is just too valuable for a landscape business to miss. 

So in between training, looking for NFL jobs and preparing for his second Kansas State pro day in as many years, the out-of-work football player formed Mueller Landscape Services, LLC, and got to work. He hired 15-20 high school players from Kansas City, made 3,000 fliers and began to pass them out. 

Unbeknownst to him, one of the places Mueller passed out fliers was in his future boss’ neighborhood, a neighborhood just a mile from where Mueller grew up. 

Mueller didn’t know it until he met with Eagles head coach Doug Pederson shortly after signing a two-year deal to join the team as a fullback last week.  

“I’m sure his wife got one,” Mueller said to CSNPhilly.com this week. “I don’t know where his house is exactly, but I definitely passed out fliers in his neighborhood. I didn’t even know he lived there. It’s a small, small world.” 

In the week since arriving in Philadelphia, he’s still been receiving calls from prospective landscaping clients, inquiring about his services. He politely tells them the business has been put on hold, but if things don’t work out in the NFL, he looks forward to earning their business. 

For now, he plays fullback for the Philadelphia Eagles. 

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The Eagles signed Mueller to play fullback, despite the fact that he hasn’t played that position in a game in about five years, since he was a high school player at Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Kansas. 

That was a long time ago. 

But on March 8, at the Kansas State pro day, which Mueller attended for the second straight year, the Eagles were one of several teams that looked at Mueller as a fullback instead of an outside linebacker, where he played last season with the Chargers. 

A little more than a week after the pro day, the Eagles flew Mueller to Philadelphia and signed him. He’s the only fullback currently on the roster for a team that’s expected to stay within the lines of an Andy Reid-tree offense and utilize that lead blocker position. 

At the NFL owners meetings last month, Pederson said he liked the fullback position and was “sort of on assignment” to find one. He did in Mueller. 

Fullback is a position Mueller enjoys for different reasons than he enjoyed playing defensive end or outside linebacker. He loves the feeling of getting a sack and celebrates with his teammates. But he also loves the feeling he gets from playing fullback, a relatively glamour-less spot. 

“But when you’re in the film room with all your running backs and they turn to you and say ‘hey, thanks for opening that hole, I was able to get through.’ Compliments like that certainly surpass anything you could get from the media or whatever. That means a lot, being recognized by your teammates.” 

Mueller has always liked playing fullback, but he hasn’t gotten a chance to do it in recent years. He played early in his high school career, but his coaching staff then focused him more on defense as time went on. 

From there, he walked on to the Kansas State team, eventually earning a scholarship, becoming a starter and the Big 12 defensive lineman of the year. 

Still, he wanted to play on offense. And after he earned a little clout, Mueller began to press his coaches for the opportunity to play fullback. They appeased him by running a few plays during practice, but “it was just to make me happy and shut me up about it,” he said. Mueller never got a snap on offense at Kansas State. 

And by the time he signed with the Chargers after the draft, he had completed his transition from defensive end to outside linebacker. 

The only taste of playing fullback he got last year was with the scout team. Sometimes he would play the role of fullback to help the defense get ready for the next week’s opponent. 

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Mueller’s only NFL experience has come as an outside linebacker, but he thinks he’s fully capable of playing fullback in the league. 

In fact, the lead blocker is the one position on offense most like playing defense. 

“Hit or be hit,” he said. 

Furthermore, Mueller thinks his time as an outside linebacker with the Chargers will help his transition to playing fullback with the Eagles. 

“It’s a reverse view,” Mueller said of playing outside ‘backer. “I have a better idea of who’s a good fullback, what a good fullback looks like. They’re powerful, they’re strong. I know what outside linebackers don’t really like to have happen when a fullback plays a certain style or gets on them quickly. I know those things and I feel those will help me perform well.”

Mueller wasn’t just an OK defensive lineman at Kansas State, he was one of the best in the Big 12. He had 17 ½ sacks combined in his junior and senior years and was a two-time All-Big 12 first-teamer. 

Even though he's now a fullback, Mueller thinks his ability as a pass-rusher is still a plus, “because there’s only 46 guys suiting up on Sunday’s and if it’s Week 10 and you lose somebody, or a couple guys, you’re going to need somebody.” 

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Before the Eagles called a week ago, Mueller was nearly literally up to his neck in mulch. In a three-week span, he and his crew moved 180 yards of mulch. Mueller says that equates to about 2 ½ to 3 semi-trucks full. 

Mueller first began his foray into the world of landscaping when he was 13 and slowly built up his client list until he left for college after senior year. He said he did “fairly well for some high school punk.” 

While he left Kansas City for Kansas State after high school, he still moved mulch. In fact, it’s what helped him pay for school until he earned a scholarship. When Saturday practice would end at noon, Mueller would recruit some teammates to make the two-hour drive back to KC. They’d pick up a load of mulch, fulfill his accounts and get back to Manhattan, Kansas, around 1:30 a.m., just in time to sneak a few hours of sleep before the next morning’s 6 a.m. weightlifting session. 

Mueller even majored in landscape management at Kansas State before switching his major to business marketing.  

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While Mueller signed with the Eagles last week, his sister beat him by about eight years. She was an Eagles cheerleader for two seasons while working toward her degree at Villanova University, where he once took a visit before deciding on Kansas State.  

Mueller even got a chance to watch a game as a fan at the Linc, so he’s experienced the rowdy crowd first-hand. Of course, that day he was cheering on the cheerleaders. 

“We don’t look anything alike,” Mueller quickly interjected with a smile. “My sister is stunningly beautiful, but she couldn’t play fullback.” 

In a few months, we’ll get to see if he can.