Kristian Fulton’s breakout season with the LA Chargers earned him a two-year contract from the Kansas City Chiefs this past offseason. While Fulton’s 2024 season was promising on the surface, Chargers fans saw cracks in Fulton’s game up close and personal that other teams may not have seen.

The Chiefs are yet to see Fulton in any real game action, but they may be coming to the same realization the Chargers learned late in 2024.

Fulton lined up outside against seventh-round running back Brashard Smith during Chiefs minicamp. Smith looked far more like a wide receiver than a running back as the rookie burned Fulton on a go-route to catch a touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes. According to those in attendance, Smith had a good three steps on Fulton.

Chiefs already seeing the same Kristian Fulton flaws the Chargers did

The 2024 season was a tale of two halves for the former Tennessee Titans cornerback. Fulton started the season off on a great note, however, the more exposure he had the worse he played in the Chargers’ secondary.

This tracks with Fulton’s scouting report that pre-dated his Chargers days. Fulton has always had an exciting ceiling as an athletic corner, hence why he was drafted in the second round. However, he has never quite lived up to that ceiling. Fulton has shown flashes but he has had far too many costly moments as well.

It doesn’t really matter that Fulton was burned on one route during minicamp practice. However, the Chiefs might be feeling worse about their investment after seeing Fulton get burnt by a seventh-round running back.

After all, the Chargers had the resources to re-sign Fulton this offseason and opted to take on two more fliers in Donte Jackson and Benjamin St-Juste instead. The Chargers clearly viewed Fulton as replaceable, and probably got a kick out of their rival spending $20 million to sign him.

The Chargers must leverage their intel on Fulton and should go after that matchup in Week 1 before the Chiefs have regular-season snaps to adjust. The Chiefs won’t come to the full Fulton realization until they see him in game speed. That’s an advantage for the Chargers, who get the first crack at him in Brazil.

Don’t be surprised if the Chargers attack Fulton in Week 1 and that ends up being a storyline from the game. After all, the team outwardly took the same approach when it faced Kenneth Murray for the first time last season.