The Kansas City Chiefs have a fascinating game of musical chairs going on in their secondary right now, and at least one player is going to wind up without a positional chair. when the offseason game ends. According to Thomas Valentine of Pro Football Focus, Chiefs cornerback Kristian Fulton is a cap-cut candidate, as he named one from all 32 teams in a recent piece.
Valentine’s choice is a good one. As he noted, things “haven’t worked out” for Fulton, who signed a two-year contract with Kansas City last offseason, but he was often a healthy scratch when he wasn’t dealing with an ankle injury.
The former second-round pick would incur an $8 million cap hit, according to Valentine, but cutting Fulton would also save the Chiefs $5 million in cap money. Reports have the Chiefs making all kinds of cuts and doing plenty of restructuring up and down the roster, which could indicate that what’s coming is more overhaul than makeover.
The problems the Chiefs face in the secondary are tricky, to say the least. Cornerback Jaylen Watson and safety Bryan Cook are highly-rated players who are going to get paid in free agency, and slot corner Trent McDuffie has been mentioned as a candidate for either an extension or a trade.
That would leave Fulton as an odd man out, especially since several depth players behind him played well in what were essentially tryout games at the end of the Chiefs’ disappointing 6-11 season.
If Fulton does get the gate in Kansas City, he’ll need to show out at his next stop. He’s getting a reputation as a journeyman, with Valentine commenting that he’s “ bounced around the league in the last three seasons after a strong start to his NFL career.”
Fulton is 27, and his recent NFL itinerary includes a one-year stint with the Los Angeles Chargers before the Chiefs signed him. Before that he spent four seasons with the Tennessee Titans, and while his PFF coverage grade was good, his run defense wasn’t, plus he’s had trouble staying on the field lately.
The Chiefs excel at developing players in the secondary, so there’s a solution somewhere in all of this that we don’t know about just yet. Kansas City GM Brett Veach mentioned the defensive line as a primary area that needs to be addressed at the NFL combine last week, and the issues in the secondary will likely track off whatever defensive personnel calls are made up front.