Kendall Fuller says he can play at a “high level” for the Chiefs
By Matt Conner
Kendall Fuller took some time to speak to reporters on Monday about his trade to the Chiefs and whether he will play inside or outside.
Kendall Fuller is the offseason prize.
When the Kansas City Chiefs traded away their starting quarterback in Alex Smith, a beloved team leader who’d elevated the franchise to stable success over the course of five seasons, there was one player the Chiefs insisted on getting in return: Kendall Fuller.
Weeks later, the Chiefs would lean upon the presence of the young, talented cornerback received from the Washington Redskins when they would make another shocking trade in the Marcus Peters deal.
The only way the Chiefs were able to trade away their single best playmaker on defense is if they had a replacement already in house, someone who might not have the same track record of forcing turnovers but one who has earned rave reviews as a dynamic pass defender in the nation’s capital. Fuller was the key to both deals, and moving forward, will remain just as important to the Chiefs as they rebuild their defense.
“[I’m] starting to learn the system now, it’s similar to how it was in Washington,” said Fuller to reporters on Monday. “EB [Eric Berry] asked me if there was anything I didn’t understand. I was like, ‘Man, honestly, it was stuff we do the same—same language, stuff like that.’ It really just excites me more as I learn the system, because it’s all stuff that I feel I can do at a high level.”
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The Chiefs have to like to make-up of the young cornerback, especially when compared to the more volatile Peters, which you can hear when Fuller describes his upbringing.
“The main thing my father instilled in us when we were young was that we’re always going to work hard and compete,” said Fuller. “No matter what the situation is, no matter what’s going on around us, that’s the two things you’re always going to get from us. We’re always going to compete. We’re always going to work. In life in general, that’s two things we try to take with us.”
Fuller detailed the night that he was traded to reporters, saying that he initially thought reports were wrong because his agent didn’t even know about the deal either before rumors started to leak on Twitter.
“It was a funny night, honestly. I ended up calling my agent, because they said there was an unknown player in the trade and stuff like that. I called my agent and I’m like, ‘Am I in the trade?’ He’s like, ‘Nah, I haven’t heard anything.’ I think that’s when I came out and started tweeting a little bit. Then maybe five minutes later, he called me back and was like, ‘Nah, you might actually be in the trade.’ I was like, ‘Shoot, let me get off of social media then’ and just took it from there.”
As for where he fits in K.C., he’s confident he can handle it in stride no matter where he’s played in the past.
“It’s kind of like when I got to college, you had to learn how to do everything,” said Fuller of whether or not he could play inside or outside. “Whether you’re inside or outside, whether or not you sometimes have to drop back as a safety, for me, it’s always been learning the position, learning football. Inside, outside… like you said, it’s just a different area of the field. It’s not too much different at all.”