Were Chicago Bears right to move on from this player?

When Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears moved on from Kyle Fuller, everyone was stunned. When he signed with Vic Fangio and the Broncos, it became angry. As the Bears used his salary on Jimmy Graham, who has hardly played, as well as Andy Dalton, the backup, and Akiem Hicks, who has banged up again, it became complete frustration.

However, while Ryan Pace surely has made his fair share of poor decisions, and he certainly could have had the team much more flexible, he may have been right to move on from  Kyle Fuller, especially at his cost.

It is only five games in, but Kyle Fuller is on pace for the worst year of his career. According to PFF, he is allowing 60.4 yards per game. For perspective last year they had him marked with 32 yards allowed per game. His career-worst season sits at 55 yards allowed per game.

Beyond that, he is allowing his worst yards after the catch per reception, yards per reception, and passer rating. Lastly, he has allowed the seventh-most yards in the NFL this season. Kindle Vildor is allowing 191 yards at 14.7 per catch, while Fuller is at 302 yards and 16.8 per catch.

Fuller has allowed a 20-yard reception in all but one game. Darius Slayton, Marvin Jones, Marquise Brown, Chase Claypool, and Diontae Johnson have all caught 20 yard balls against Fuller. All of these are plays where Fuller is beat downfield by the speed of these athletes.

Again, Ryan Pace could have easily made a lot of better decisions that could have had this team with plenty of cap space to spend. However, that does mean that he could have let Fuller go, and had even more resources to put into, oh, I do not know, the offensive line?

The Chicago Bears’ defense relies on pressure. They believed in Jaylon Johnson as a shutdown cornerback. They may see Fuller at age 29 and thought that he peaked out and was not worth that salary.

Jimmy Graham is not worth his contract, but we longer have to say that he was at the expense of Kyle Fuller, because through five games Fuller has not been worth his reduced salary, let alone what Chicago would have paid him. Looking at the Fuller decision in a vacuum, it is not an all-time bad move.