The Chiefs have a new cornerback and are down a quarterback.
Match that with him being able to play both in the slot and outside and he is a great wide receiver to add alongside TY Hilton on the Colts offense. Round 2 Pick 44 - Brycen Hopkins, TE. Peyton Manning Has Owned Slot Machines for Years. In 2004 Manning had a record-breaking season and was able to satisfy three Colts receivers with over 1,000 yards and double-digit touchdowns each.
The Alex Smith trade can’t officially be consummated until the start of the new league year on March 14. However, it is currently agreed to in principle, and short of any wacky things happening I am working under the assumption that the ink is dry on this one.
So what did the Chiefs acquire for Smith? Kendall Fuller is a cornerback drafted by Washington in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft. He played at Virginia Tech in college.
In Washington’s defense, when three receivers came in for the opposing team, Fuller would be on the field covering the slot receiver. He did not play in their base defense and line up on the outside — that was left to Josh Norman, Bashaud Breeland and others.
For the Chiefs I have a feeling that things will be a bit different. Fuller will likely play opposite Marcus Peters in base defense and move down to cover the slot in nickel subpackages. This mean his play time and snap count will likely increase.
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I studied the four games Fuller played in 2017 against AFC West opponents, including the Chiefs. Through those four games Fuller allowed only two receptions: one to Chargers receiver Travis Benjamin on a drag route and one to Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce on a seam route. That’s it.
Given he wasn’t on the field every snap, two receptions between four games seems like a lot. However, we know that both the Chargers and Raiders have a high-powered passing game. The Broncos have talent at receiver and while they tried to pass the ball this season, their quarterback and offensive line woes prevented them from much success there. So Fuller saw the field quite often during these games.
Let’s get started and peep the film.
If you are having trouble identifying Fuller in the tape look for No. 29 in the slot where he always lines up. If that isn’t enough, look for the cornerback fidgeting with his gloves before every snap. It’s like his ritual at the plate or something because it happens on practically every snap unless it’s hurry-up.
First of all I want to break down Fuller’s completions allowed. Most of the big plays against Washington typically come with Fuller off the field.
For instance, the biggest play of the day in the Chargers game was a touchdown pass to Tyrell Williams that went for 75 yards. It was a two-receiver set and Fuller was off the field for that play. This next big play speaks more to the Chiefs offense than it does to Fuller.
Here we have a 32-yard gain to Kelce with Fuller in coverage. First things first, if you’re going to press a big receiver like Kelce, you have to pop him hard on the line. Because just getting your hands on him isn’t going to be enough to throw him off his mark.
Kelce made a sweet adjustment on this play which helped with the completion. Instead of working inside out, Kelce went outside in. This gave Kelce leverage over the defender and allowed Smith to throw the ball away from the safety.
Speaking of which, let’s talk about that safety. As soon as the ball was snapped he shaded to the side of the field that receiver Tyreek Hill was on. This got him out of position and didn’t give him any chance to break up this pass to Kelce.
Smith threw an absolute dot here and if he threw it anywhere else, even in pursuit, I think Fuller would have had a chance to break it up. Also, let’s give Fuller some credit for tackling and taking Kelce down almost immediately after the catch.
This completion doesn’t really have a whole lot to it. If you look at Fuller’s hips, they were turned to the outside so it looks like Fuller expected to turn and run that direction. Instead Benjamin took it inside and Fuller didn’t lose a whole lot when he flipped his hips, but Benjamin still had a speed advantage on Fuller.
To me, the impressive thing here is that Fuller was able to bring down Benjamin before this play did a whole lot of damage. A seven-yard gain here was a lot better than letting Benjamin slip for 20-plus yards.
I am including this tweet by Dustin Hopkins because my initial impression of Fuller is that he must watch a lot of film.
Why? Because he has moments where he seems to react at freakish speed or abandon his assignment because he saw some sort of tell.
This is a play that the Chiefs run often. They motioned out Hill on the sweep because they want the linebackers and safeties moving a certain direction so that they can hand the ball off going the other way. Hill was Fuller’s responsibility here in man coverage.
Fuller started to go with Hill a bit before deciding to crash down on the run. He took on left tackle Eric Fisher as the lead blocker, and even though he got driven back he had the right idea on this play. It also shows that he had been in the film room.
I want to know what the tell was that this play was going to running back Kareem Hunt. Was it simply a gamble that paid off or did he know for sure? Because if Smith did hand it off to Hill, he would’ve had a good block on the outside and with only an outside linebacker and a safety to beat.
I think communication was an underrated issue on the Chiefs defense this year. There were so many moving pieces throughout the season. No safety Eric Berry, along with cornerbacks, linebackers and a whole bunch of players rotating in and out of the lineup made it hard to keep track of assignments and communicate when a player noticed something.
So when a new player is added to the lineup, it’s important to know that they are a good communicator. Above you see that Fuller communicated with another cornerback regarding play responsibilities, motioned to and swapped responsibilities with Martrell Spaight. This swap was executed perfectly and locked down things as far as coverage is concerned, but there was no spy on the play and quarterback Derek Carr sneaked out to run for the first down.
Adding another guy to the mix who can see this play before it develops and communicate to the defense the way to lock it down will help flesh out some of those communication issues that hit the Chiefs for big plays last year.
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The Chiefs’ defensive tackling left a lot to be desired. While cornerbacks shouldn’t be tackling that much, it’s good to know that they can do it and do it well if called upon.
This play was just a special one by Fuller. It was the end of the game and the Raiders were in hurry-up trying to come back from a big deficit. Fuller was responsible for one half of the midfield zone and when he saw Carr getting chased out of the pocket he started to creep closer to Seth Roberts, the only receiver that Carr possibly had a shot at getting the ball to.
Carr threw it and Roberts caught it. Fuller made an open field tackle on Roberts almost as soon as he turned around and in the process of wrapping up he punched the ball out. What made the play even more stunning is that he continued to pin Roberts to the ground so that he had no chance to recover his own fumble. That open-field tackle was just dynamite from the kid and I look forward to seeing more of those in the future.
This play is less flashy and more textbook than the last. He doesn’t do it too often because he isn’t in the game for Washington on many running situations, but Fuller can disengage from a blocker to make a tackle.
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Here he jumped in the pile and combined with his teammates for a stop. It’s good to know that he is willing to get in there and get his nose dirty when the time calls for it.