Here's why Kyle Fuller is the missing piece the Broncos have needed

In the 2018 offseason, the Chicago Bears almost let Kyle Fuller get away.

First, they passed on picking up Fuller’s fifth-year option in 2017, in part because he missed the 2016 campaign because of a knee injury. ]In the season following the May 2017 decision, Fuller had his best season to date, allowing a 69.0 rating when he was targeted. That figure, according to Pro Football Focus’ data, remains the best of Fuller’s career.

The Bears didn’t franchise-tag Fuller early in 2018. They gave him the transition tag, That led Green Bay to offer Fuller a four-year, $56-million contract. Chicago quickly matched it.

So in the end, Fuller remained a Bear for 2018 — but at a pricer figure than would have been the case if the Bears had simply picked up the option.

Midway through the 2018 season, the Bears couldn’t imagine life without him.

“I was thinking the other day, ‘What if we didn’t have him? What if he got away? ‘How much would we be missing him right now?’” said Donatell, then the Bears’ defensive-backs coach, to the Chicago Sun-Times in November 2018.

Fuller flourished in Chicago. Denver’s cornerback corps, meanwhile, struggled with depth, leading to coverage collapses in the second half of the last two seasons with Donatell and Vic Fangio working with the Broncos.

The two long-time coaches muddled through without Fuller for two years.

Now, they no longer have to.

The one-year, $9.5-million deal the Broncos gave Fuller is mutually beneficial. At a price tag cheaper than the average annual value of Ronald Darby’s 3-year, $30-million deal, Fuller gives the Broncos their deepest cornerback corps since the salad days of the “No-Fly Zone.” Fuller and Darby are poised to line up on the outside with Bryce Callahan returning to the slot-cornerback role at which he became arguably the league’s best.

It gives Fuller the chance to reunite with Fangio, under whom he had his best season in 2018, earning his only All-Pro selection. It also allows him to hit the free-agent market next year, when the salary cap should see a substantial rise thanks to an expected return to normalcy with in-person attendance and revenues from tickets, concessions, parking and other ancillary streams at stadiums.

And now Fuller gives the Broncos the ammunition that could, finally, allow them to succeed at their quest of the post-Peyton Manning seasons: being a viable playoff contender with a top-shelf defense and just enough offense.

This failed each year, but for reasons that changed with the calendar.

It nearly worked in 2016, when the “No-Fly Zone” was still at its zenith, but ultimately, the offense collapsed, accounting for just 36 points in a four-game December stretch.

Even with an elite defense that allowed a respectable 18 points per game in those games, the Broncos’ hopes died; you’re not going anywhere with an offense that musters 9 points an outing, as Denver’s attack did in that long December.

The defenses since then have had holes, some of which sprung up over the course of the season.

In 2017, their defense dealt with short fields and allowed 29 passing touchdowns, the fifth-highest tally in the NFL. Having been stretched to cover for a shaky offense, the unit finally collapsed

A year later, in Vance Joseph’s second season as head coach, the offseason trade of Aqib Talib moved Bradley Roby up a notch; he struggled in the every-down role while linebackers and safeties struggled to cover tight ends, which was never more evident than when George Kittle nearly set an NFL single-game receiving record for tight ends in a single half.

Then came 2019, Vic Fangio’s first season as head coach. The defense struggled early to adjust to the scheme, while Fangio and his staff didn’t figure out a front-seven alignment that worked until Week 5, when Alexander Johnson moved into the starting lineup and Shelby Harris shifted to defensive end. A reliance on young cornerbacks and the loss of Bradley Chubb put a cap on the defense’s capability, and the Broncos finished 12th in total defense.

Finally, in 2020 the Broncos dealt with the absences of starters Von Miller (16 games), Mike Purcell (10 games), A.J. Bouye (9 games), Callahan (6 games), Shelby Harris (5 games) and rookie nickelback Essang Bassey (4 games).

Injuries could still strike again, no doubt.

But with Chubb, Miller, the re-signed Shelby Harris and emerging defensive end Dre’Mont Jones providing pass rush up front, the Broncos have the rush-and-cover combination that success in the NFL requires.

They could use a safety in the wake of their decision to not pick up Kareem Jackson’s option. Bringing Jackson back under different terms is still in play. So could re-signing Will Parks. Drafting a safety in the first three rounds could go along with either move, as the Broncos have committed to making Justin Simmons the NFL’s highest-paid safety. In overall roster construction under the salary cap, a safety on a rookie deal would be a snug complement to a $15-million-per-year safety.

The Broncos have key playmakers at all levels of the defense. Their cornerback corps now has the depth and quality it lacked last year.

George Paton has given Fangio the pieces he needs. Now it’s on Fangio to do what he did with defenses that had similar talent levels in San Francisco and Chicago in the past decade: make the unit into one of the league’s elite.

There are no excuses now. The pieces are there.