The Ravens have agreed to a one-year deal with cornerback Kyle Fuller, adding a Baltimore native with playmaking pedigree who could help stabilize their secondary. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Fuller, 30, should compete for playing time immediately on a Ravens defense looking to return to health and bounce back from a historically bad 2021. The Mount Saint Joseph product has started 94 games over his eight-year NFL career and hasn’t missed a game because of injury since 2016, when knee surgery sidelined him.
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Fuller, a first-round pick of the Bears in 2014, earned first-team All-Pro honors in 2018 with Chicago after leading the NFL with seven interceptions. He made the Pro Bowl a second time in 2019, his fifth straight year with at least two picks.
Fuller’s past few seasons, however, have been more erratic. The Bears released him after the 2020 season in a cost-cutting move, and Fuller signed a one-year, $9.5 million contract with the Denver Broncos in March 2021. He struggled at times in Denver last season, playing just four defensive snaps over a three-game span in October, including a Week 7 benching, and nine snaps over a two-game span in December. He also finished the year without an interception for the first time in his career.
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Fuller’s up-and-down season led to significant snaps in the slot, where he’d lined up only occasionally in Chicago. After playing just 63 coverage snaps inside over Denver’s first eight weeks, according to Sports Info Solutions, he played 218 snaps there over the next nine weeks. As a slot cornerback, he allowed 17 completions on 31 targets for 193 yards and two touchdowns (95.2 passer rating in coverage); as an outside cornerback, he gave up 13 completions on 21 targets for 256 yards and two touchdowns (116.4 passer rating).
“He never got down on himself,” then-Broncos coach Vic Fangio said of Fuller after a Week 9 win that marked the start of his transition inside. “He was frustrated.
“But [if] you keep sawing wood, you’ll be ready when your number’s called. And he was ready.”
Fuller’s versatility and experience should fit in well in Baltimore. After finishing last in the NFL in pass defense last year, the Ravens released cornerback Tavon Young and did not re-sign cornerbacks Anthony Averett or Chris Westry. In the draft, they took safety Kyle Hamilton, who has experience defending slot receivers, and cornerbacks Jalyn Armour-Davis and Damarion “Pepe” Williams. Team officials are also hopeful that starters Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters will be back to full strength after suffering season-ending injuries last season.
Fuller, who starred in football and track and field for the Gaels before a standout career at Virginia Tech, has played at M&T Bank Stadium just once in his NFL career: a 2017 win over the Ravens with Chicago. He told The Baltimore Sun before the game that season that he was “very excited” about his homecoming.
“It’s something I’ve dreamed about when I was growing up,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”
