Cornerback Kendall Fuller is getting noticeably better as the season goes on for the Kansas City Chiefs, a welcome sight on a needy defense.
Last January, the Kansas City Chiefs swapped their most valuable trade asset, quarterback Alex Smith, to the Washington Redskins for a third-round pick and cornerback Kendall Fuller. At the time, Fuller had just wrapped his second year in the NFL and, in the process, had earned rave reviews for his improvement in Washington’s secondary.
The consensus was that general manager Brett Veach had scored a coup in getting Washington to trade away a cost-controlled player like Fuller who was blossoming into one of the NFL’s best pass defenders. He was widely rated as the best slot corner in the game in 2017, and his presence gave the Chiefs more talent, depth and options as they approached the rest of the offseason.
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As the regular season got underway, however, Fuller lacked the sort of instincts that were so widely celebrated back in the nation’s capital. Poor angles were taken. Catches were allowed. After a handful of games, it felt like fans were sold a bill of goods—a decent corner portrayed as a potential replacement for a shutdown version.
In recent weeks, however, the story about Fuller is changing once again. Fans likely took notice last week as Fuller singlehandedly took care of back-to-back two-point conversion attempts by the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. In recent games against the Browns, Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals, Fuller has looked sharper and more decisive. He’s that much quicker to the ball in a game where milliseconds matter.
If you think Fuller looks better via the eye test, just know that you’re not alone in seeing the change. Andy Reid even spoke to the media earlier this week about Fuller’s metamorphosis as he gets used to Bob Sutton’s defensive scheme.
"“I think it’s just being more familiar with the defense and then that communication thing,” said Reid. “These guys, the more they play together, that’s valuable from a defensive standpoint. Then, he studies. He’s into it. He’s one of these guys that loves to come out and he’s going to try to include everybody in the studying part of it. If he sees something, he’ll talk to his coach, he’ll talk to his players. He is a great communicator in that way. He’s very, very smart.”"
Fuller has never looked horrible, so it’s not like the 23-year-old has been some massive letdown, an offseason bust of a transaction or a blemish on Veach’s record. Rather, Fuller, like any new player, has simply needed time to show fans what Veach envisioned in the first place. Over the last few weeks, he’s beginning to do exactly that and show up as one of the NFL’s better cornerbacks.
Even Pro Football Focus has given Fuller three of his four highest game scores of the season in the last three weeks, yet another outlet signaling what many of us are seeing week to week.
When the Chiefs first traded for Fuller, the hype was a bit much on a young corner who was just settling in with the team that drafted him. It was silly to think he wouldn’t need time to adjust to another change coming his way. It’s good to see Fuller returning to the form we expected and Veach envisioned.