Kristian Fulton's debut was confusing even before he got on the field. After watching the Kansas City Chiefs' decision-making process in Week 11, there were just as many questions after the fact.
Fulton finally made his on-field debut for the Chiefs in a frustrating loss to the Denver Broncos coming out of the bye week. The defeat sent the Chiefs further into a tailspin in the division, and they now sit 3.5 half games back in the AFC West with seven games to play.
While the Chiefs only called on Fulton for 9 total snaps in the game, it's a perplexing issue all the same, since the team signed him in free agency to a two-year deal worth up to $20 million in the first place. The vision for him from the outset was to work with Jaylen Watson and Trent McDuffie as part of a core trio of pass defenders in the secondary. However, the Chiefs have kept him as a healthy scratch for most of the regular season so far.
Steve Spagnuolo answered some questions about the Chiefs' cornerback room and how Kristian Fulton and Nohl Williams might be used going forward.
Questions first surfaced when Fulton was clearly healthy and yet sitting on the sidelines on game days as one of a handful of inactive players. Meanwhile, the vacated spot on the roster was taken over by rookie corner Nohl Williams, drafted in the third round out of Cal. Meanwhile, Joshua Williams remained active as a depth piece and special teams performer.
For Fulton to cost so much against the cap and receive so little playing time was already confounding enough, but when called upon after the bye, he still didn't play much—or that well. If he has rust to work out, the Chiefs didn't give him that chance. Yet they also didn't play his replacement either, as Williams had zero snaps in Week 11.
It's no surprise, then, that reporters had plenty of questions about the cornerback situation going into Week 12 as the Chiefs prepare to host the Indianapolis Colts. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo tried his best to explain why Fulton took so long to see the field in the first place.
"We’ve been trying to get [Fulton] back out there for a month or whatever it’s been," said Spagnuolo. "First, it was the health, and then when we finally got over that hurdle, then as Dave [Toub] and I talked, it was, ‘Is he ready mentally?’
"You gotta remember, and I’ve talked to Kristian, he’s been in a tough situation. If you guys go all the way back to when we got him in OTAs, he didn’t practice a lot, he was hurt. Got to training camp, he was hurt. So he’s really a rookie in the system. There were a couple of weeks there where it was about, ‘Does he have it all down now?’ That took a little. Then we got to the bye week and said, ‘This might be the time to get him out there,' so that’s what we did."
As for what happened with Williams, Spagnuolo admitted the team wasn't trying to completely box him out. The rookie has become a valuable contributor, so there's no reason for K.C. to bench him outright. However, Spagnuolo admitted that it's hard to balance everyone's expectations with limited reps.
"We can’t get everybody out there. We had some packages for Nohl, and we really didn’t get to them, and there’s only so many corners out there at one time, especially when we didn’t play as much in the nickel. So we’ll see how the reps go this week, but both of those guys are probably going to play at some point for us."
Given the short stint after waiting for weeks on end, it's no surprise that Fulton struggled a bit against Denver. Spagnuolo knows there some work to do for Fulton to feel at home in the Chiefs' secondary, but affirmed his presence all the same.
"I thought Kristian did a pretty good job. He had that one that I’m sure he would have liked to have had back, that one long pass play. But we’re going to need all of these guys down the stretch here."