Arrowhead Pride
Kansas City was interested in Fulton back in 2019 — and now, he finally gets a chance to play for the team.
The Kansas City Chiefs wasted little time. On the second day of the NFL’s “legal tampering period,” they signed cornerback Kristian Fulton to a two-year contract worth $20 million — including $15 million guaranteed.
The 26-year-old entered the league as a second-round pick for the Tennessee Titans out of LSU in the 2020 NFL Draft. In 2024, the 6-foot, 200-pound cornerback signed a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Chargers. Over five seasons, he’s made 51 regular-season starts, tallying 210 tackles (155 solo), 32 passes defensed and five interceptions.
But Fulton understands that in Kansas City, he’ll now be playing for a unit that’s at the top of the league.
“Being a defensive guy, I know [that] defense wins championships — even though it’s a great offense as well,” he explained to local reporters through a Zoom call on Thursday. “But you don’t get [to this] level of [the] NFL without having a great defense. [In] the past year — the past few years — [that’s] been put on display. And obviously, being a corner, I like to watch other corners in this league. The past few years, they’ve had some of the top guys in the league with their play — and then this scheme.”
Fulton believes he’ll be a great fit in the Chiefs’ defense. Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and defensive backs coach Dave Merritt have felt that way for a while.
“I’ve talked to both of them,” he said. “[They’re] great coaches — great guys — and they told me how much they love my game. They love how they think I can be a key piece on the defense — to fit right in the scheme. They watched me when I came out of college, [so] that was something that stood out to them. They feel that they can take my game to another level.”
Before the 2020 draft, we came to the same conclusion at Arrowheaqd Pride.
If the Chiefs do decide to target Fulton, there is minimal doubt to his fit in Kansas City. He is a fluid athlete with quick processing — a good combination for the blend of man and zone coverages that Spagnuolo would like to run in his secondary. He possesses the requisite length and ball skills to play in Kansas City as well.
While the Chiefs brought Fulton in for an interview during the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine, he admits that he remembers little about it. “It was a lot going on that weekend,” he said with a smile.
Still, he believes things have finally played out as they should have.
“It always comes back full circle; it was meant to be,” he said. “[It] didn’t happen then, but now it’s meant to be for us to work together and to build on the success that [the team has] already had. I’m looking forward to building on...
