Broncos: Kyle Fuller taking his talents to Denver, reuniting with Vic Fangio
By Josh Hill
Kyle Fuller managed to burn two NFC North teams on his way to finding a new home for the 2021 season.
Former Chicago Bears Pro Bowl cornerback Kyle Fuller has a new home, but not everything is unfamiliar.
While Fuller will be playing for a new team in 2021, he won’t be playing for brand new coach.
According to Tom Pelissero from NFL Network, Fuller will be reuniting with his former defensive coordinator Vic Fangio in Denver.
“The Broncos have agreed to terms with two-time Pro Bowl CB Kyle Fuller on a one-year, $9.5 million deal, including $9M fully guaranteed, per source.” Pelissero reported on Saturday. “They swooped in quickly after the Bears released Fuller, who now reunites with Vic Fangio in Denver.”
Kyle Fuller choosing former Bears coach is a low key dig at Chicago
Fuller’s decision to sign with the Broncos isn’t an outright dig at his former team, in fact it’s almost worse.
Losing Fangio after the 2018 season isn’t an unforgivable sin, and of the many wrong things the Bears have done over the last few years is not something that can be held against them. Coordinators that have great seasons on good teams tend to get head coaching jobs, so Fangio leaving is more painful in hindsight than anything else.
Rather, Fangio leaving and now Fuller getting jettisoned to save money presents a death by a thousand cuts for Bears fans. As the hope bleeds out of everyone in Chicago, the optics of the best thing about the team over the last few years existing elsewhere in the league is so incredibly fitting for the Ryan Pace downward spiral that it’s almost too on the nose.
Fangio, as it turns out, was the Bears best coach of the last handful of years (and possibly beyond) while Fuller was a top player at his position who was deemed expendable through the type of poor decision making that has lowered the Bears into a deeply dug grave.
As for the Broncos, there’s not much to say here other than it’s an absolute steal they were able to land Fuller. Denver was able to bring back Justin Simmons and added Ronald Darby to its secondary, and managed to navigate the offseason thus far without having to release Vonn Miller. Fangio’s defense was already shaping up to take a step forward in 2021 and now it adds a Pro Bowler in Fuller that only gives further confidence to a team that watched its biggest rival — and road block in the AFC West — get obliterated by a similar defense in the Super Bowl.