The Houston Texans and receiver Will Fuller are headed for a breakup. The AFC South club has no plans to use the franchise tag on their former 2016 first-round pick, and talks of an extension have frozen over long ago. The Notre Dame alumnus may very well be playing in a new NFL city in 2021.
If Fuller leaves Houston, where would be a good fit for him?
According to Seth Galina from Pro Football Focus, the Cincinnati Bengals would be an ideal situation for the 6-0, 184-pound wideout. Fuller would go from catching passes from Deshaun Watson to catching passes from second-year quarterback Joe Burrow, whose season was cut short with an ACL injury.
Given Burrow’s accuracy in the intermediate range (1-19 yards downfield) and Tyler Boyd‘s big catch radius already entrenched in Cincinnati, the Bengals don’t strictly need a tried-and-true player who can get separation. Instead, they could target Fuller’s downfield speed, which would go a long way toward improving a passing attack that ranked 31st in deep passing yards in 2020 (470). Fuller also quietly had the ninth-highest grade at receiver in the league last season, at 86.2.
Fuller had a career year in a contract season in 2020 with 53 catches for 879 yards and eight touchdowns through 11 games, all of which he started.
What has been a pock mark on the face of Fuller’s five-year NFL career is his availability. Throughout the first four seasons, Fuller struggled with injuries. In 2020, Fuller was suspended for six games for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancing drugs. The suspension was levied with five games to go, meaning that Fuller will have to complete the final game of the suspension during Week 1 of the 2021 season.
The Bengals like Texans veterans. In the 2020 offseason, Cincinnati signed former defensive tackle D.J. Reader to a four-year, $53 million contract to shore up their trenches.