[FREE] Do the Titans have a Kristian Fulton Problem?
Kristian Fulton had a great offseason where he changed things up, but none of it seems to matter so far.
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Coming into this season, one of the more significant questions surrounding the Titans was the future of their secondary.
Particularly, a certain corner that’s currently going through the early portion of an important contract year.
Now that certain could be none other than Sean Murphy-Bunting, who only signed a one year deal with the Titans this past off-season, and needs to perform in order to secure more money.
Either from the Titans or from some other team on the market.
But we aren’t talking about Murphy-Bunting today. Instead, we’re discussing the former 2nd round pick, and former national champion, Kristian Fulton.
Fulton’s future was one of much discussion throughout camp, as the talented corner’s contract situation remains one of the many vast unknowns for the Titans after the 2023 season. Fulton has developed into a regular starter as a boundary corner and has put in some decent performances to boot.
But his injury history and inconsistency remain as two of the biggest reasons why his future with the Titans appears to be uncertain going forward. If Fulton did remain healthy and remained the competitive corner the Titans have seen glimpses of, then his long-term future in Tennessee wouldn’t be such a mystery.
However, so far this season, Fulton hasn’t been able to shut down those two big questions.
Injuries, injuries, injuries
So far through two games, Fulton has missed the mark regarding at least one of those big concerns.
And that’s the injury side of things.
Fulton dealt with hamstring issues in the Titans’ first game of the season against the New Orleans Saints.
Fulton did return to the game just a week and some change ago, but he was eventually held out of practice the following week and ultimately held out of the Titans’ Week 2 game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
We don’t know how long Fulton will be out, but regardless of that, it was another soft tissue injury that struck Fulton and caused him to miss precious time on the field. As a matter of fact, it’s the same soft tissue area that has rocked Fulton’s availability and has prevented him from staying healthy throughout his short NFL career.
Just this past season, Fulton missed 6 games due to soft tissue injuries. Most of which being hamstring and groin problems.
And in 2021, Fulton missed more time to hamstring trouble.
The missed game time alluded to here doesn’t even include the amount of times Fulton had to leave games due to injuries, only to not return as a result.
The injuries have become such a common trend for Fulton, that head coach Mike Vrabel dropped his name at an early January 2023 press conference, stating that his repeat status as a soft tissue offender could be a sign that Fulton needs to improve his ability to stay durable.
Fulton did take that into consideration however, by deciding to not attend voluntary workouts and opt against practicing on the field during mandatory minicamp. All in an effort to implement his own offseason regimen to help fight against the soft tissue injuries that have plagued him in the past.
But so far, that regimen hasn’t allowed Fulton to stay completely healthy.
Do the Titans have a Kristian Fulton problem?
Which begs the question.
Do the Titans have a Kristian Fulton problem? Not in terms of Fulton being a bad football player, but in terms of the Titans relying on Fulton to play majority of the games when history has suggested he won’t be able to do so.
Quite frankly, the answer seems to be yes.
The Titans at least tried to address this problem with the signing of Murphy-Bunting, as well as more reliance on second year corner Roger McCreary. But since McCreary’s arm length prevents him from being able to consistently challenge bigger and longer receivers, it seems this specific plan is faultier than not.
Even then, the depth behind the “top three” of Fulton, Murphy-Bunting- and McCreary hasn’t been adequately addressed.
The only depth corner that you can feel somewhat confident in is Tre Avery. But Avery himself hasn’t been able to do much, at least statistically, since teams have found a lot of success targeting him whenever he’s been on the field.
You want proof? Just look at the numbers whenever he was targeted just this past Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.
All this isn’t to say that the Titans need to go full Madden and acquire every all-star corner known to man, all in hopes that quality is there to fill in whenever the regular starter goes down with an injury.
Instead, it’s more so a message, one that challenges the Titans to aggressively search for corner depth to address the likely scenario that Fulton will indeed go down with some sort of injury at some point.
It seems kind of wishy washy, but contingency plans are necessary.
Overview
There’s still plenty of time for Fulton to reverse his curse and become the reliable player the Titans surely want him to be.
That off-season regimen that Fulton discussed with much detail during the summer? It could certainly help with Fulton’s health and help him decrease the likelihood of him landing on the injury report.
Granted a lot of injuries are out of the control of players, simply due to the unlucky nature of it all. But as Vrabel and even Fulton put it, Fulton’s case seems to be more so a personal issue instead of a symptom of unluckiness.
So, there’s that.
If Fulton does indeed manage to put this early season frustration behind him, then, by all means, good for him. That means the Titans get a player they can depend on, while Fulton can put his injury woes behind him and focus on being the best player he can be on the field.
If not though, then we’ll be back discussing his injury mishaps again, all of which will lead to more speculation about his future.
Fulton and maybe even the Titans hope it’ll be the former scenario that reigns supreme when it’s all said and done.
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