Chicago Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller started his rookie season on fire with a league-leading three interceptions, two forced fumbles and 22 tackles in his first month on the job in 2014. The playmaking was enough to earn Defensive Rookie of The Month honors last September.
Then the ship capsized. After the opening month, Fuller began getting burned with regularity, notably getting torched on Thanksgiving by the Detroit Lions.
Pro Football Focus graded Fuller -2.6 or worse in four of his final five games of the 2014 season. Through two contests in 2015, he's been just as poor in coverage and is rated by the analytics website as the 93rd ranked cornerback -- out of 97.
"I don't know that it's a lack of attention to detail," defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said, via ESPN.com. "I just think he has to execute better. Whether it's during the week or on game day, he's just got to execute better."
Fangio then made an interesting -- if not mind blowing -- comparison:
"I think ultimately it's playing with confidence," Fangio said of Fuller. "Tiger Woods these past two years hasn't been the Tiger Woods we know and everybody's over-analyzing him. The fact is that he hasn't been able to take his game from the range to the course and he's not been playing with confidence.
"Kyle's got to be able to take his game from the practice field to the game field and play with confidence. You're not going to have confidence until you do good things. You can't just say that I'm whoever and go out and play and have results."
Putting Fuller and Tiger in the same sentence seems ridiculous, but it makes for a good headline, no?
Fangio's salient point is that Fuller has the tools to be a good NFL corner, but he hasn't been able to cope once offenses found his weaknesses. If the first-round pick doesn't shore up those poor spots, he's in for another season of getting torched on the regular.
