Ravens agree to 1-year contract with CB Kyle Fuller, Baltimore-born and 2-time Pro Bowl – Reading Eagle

The Ravens have agreed to a one-year contract with quarterback Kyle Fuller, adding a Baltimore native with a game pedigree that could help stabilize their secondary position. The terms of the deal are not disclosed.

The 30-year-old Fuller must immediately fight for playing time in the Ravens defense to return to health and move away from the historically bad 2021. Product Mount Saint Joseph has started 94 games in his eight-year career in the NFL and has not missed a single game due to injury since 2016, when knee surgery rejected him.

Fuller, the Bears ’first-round pick in 2014, won the All-Pro first team award in 2018 from Chicago after leading the NFL with seven interceptions. He came out in the Pro Bowl for the second time in 2019, his fifth year in a row with at least two elections.

However, the last few seasons of Fuller have been more volatile. The Bears released him after the 2020 season to cut costs, and Fuller signed a $ 9.5 million annual contract with Denver Broncos in March 2021. Last season in Denver, he sometimes played with difficulty, playing just four defensive shots in three games in October, including Week 7, and nine shots in two games in December. He also finished his year for the first time in his career without interception.

Fuller’s take-off season led to significant jerks in the slot, where he only occasionally lined up in Chicago. According to Sports Info Solutions, after Denver played just 63 shots with coverage in the first eight weeks, he played 218 shots there over the next nine weeks. As a corner defender, he allowed 17 completions on 31 targets for 193 yards and two touchdowns (95.2 passes in coverage); as an outside corner defender he gave up 13 completions on 21 targets at 256 yards and two touchdowns (a pass mark of 116.4).

“He never went down to himself,” then-Broncos coach Vic Fangio said of Fuller after the victory in week 9, which marked the beginning of his transition inside. “He was disappointed.

“But [if] you keep sawing firewood, you will be ready when your number is called. And he was ready. “

Fuller’s versatility and experience should fit well into Baltimore. After finishing last in the NFL last year in the defense of the pass, the Crows released corner defenders Teywan Young and did not re-sign with corner defenders Anthony Averetto or Chris Westra. In the draft, they took the safety of Kyle Hamilton, who has experience defending slot receivers, and corner defenders Jalin Armor-Davis and Damarion “Pepe” Williams. Representatives of the team also hope that starting Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters will return to full strength after injuries at the end of last season.

Fuller, who starred in football and athletics for the Gaels before a great career at Virginia Tech, played at M&T Bank Stadium only once in his NFL career: a win over the Ravens of Chicago in 2017. He is told The Baltimore Sun before the game in a season that he was “very excited” about his return home.

“That’s what I dreamed of when I was growing up,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”

()