It’s no secret that the Washington Football Team needs some more weapons on offense. Terry McLaurin is the established threat at receiver, but outside of him Washington’s receiving options are uncertain. Washington has plenty of cap room to work with, so it makes sense that the team would be interested in some of the big name wide receivers available in free agency. Last week I looked at Allen Robinson, who’s probably the most complete receiver of this free agent class, but questioned if Washington might prefer someone who is a little more of a vertical threat to partner McLaurin. Perhaps the best pure deep threat in this group of free agents is Will Fuller.
At 6-foot, 184 pounds, Fuller isn’t the most physically imposing receiver, but he doesn’t need to be. His obvious top trait is his speed, which he has in abundance. There’s a lot more to being a consistent deep threat in the NFL than just speed, but it certainly helps a huge amount if it’s available. Fuller uses his speed to great effect, but also has the other traits required to help him be a threat on every single snap.
On the first play of this clip, we see a great example of Fuller’s speed. He lines up outside the numbers to the left of the formation and runs a go route down the sideline. He starts off with a slow release, but then bursts into life as he accelerates past his defender. Fuller doesn’t even appear to get to his top speed as he runs by the cornerback and down the sideline for a 40-yard touchdown. On the second play, we see some more nuanced ability from Fuller. He’s tasked with running a fade route from the slot, but the corner plays with outside leverage, trying to force an inside release. Fuller initially looks to release outside, but with the corner committed with outside leverage, he takes an inside release and shows off his speed again as he bursts by the corner. Once cleared of the corner, Fuller adjusts his path to get back onto his original route, the slot fade. With the defender beaten so early, Fuller can turn to locate the ball while still running away from the corner. He tracks the ball extremely well and runs under the throw to complete the pass.
On the third play of this clip, Fuller runs another go route, but this time he starts from inside the numbers, giving him more room to work with as he widens his route. The corner takes a solid position, staying inside and forcing Fuller wider, while staying on top of the route. Fuller knows the ball is coming and turns his head to locate the throw, but he makes sure not to make any sudden adjustments to give away the flight of the ball to the defender. He continues to work wider, allowing the defender to believe he has the route covered, before suddenly bursting back inside at the last second to make the catch. Once the catch is made, Fuller then takes off and runs away from the defenders on his way to a 77-yard touchdown.
Having the speed to threaten deep is one thing, but a lot of pure burners at wide receiver struggle to release into their routes when faced with press coverage. They can often get jammed at the line of scrimmage and knocked off their routes, causing the quarterback to move on to other targets. Fuller, though, shows good patience and burst at the line of scrimmage to release against press coverage in a variety of ways.
Here’s some examples of Fuller releasing against press coverage. In the first example, Fuller works in the slot on a corner route. He takes a hop step off the line and sells a hard jab inside. The corner bites and opens up his hips inside, leaving space for Fuller to work into an outside release. The corner gets turned around and then has to resort to pulling Fuller back and giving up a pass interference penalty to prevent the catch. On the second play of the clip, Fuller is again in the slot, this time against a different cornerback. The corner attempts a physical jam at the line, lunging at Fuller as soon as the ball is snapped. Fuller takes a side step with his inside leg and gets his hands up to swat away the defender’s jam attempt. Fuller then drops his hands and releases into his route as he runs away from the defender and is wide open for a big gain.
The third play shows just how quick Fuller can accelerate. He’s running a go route down the sideline, but slow plays the route. He initially releases at a gentle pace off the line and gradually widens his route towards the sideline. The corner is tricked into a false sense of security, thinking he has the route under control as he attempts to get his hands on Fuller to keep him in check, but as soon as he reaches out, Fuller accelerates past him down the sideline, but the ball is thrown elsewhere. On the final play of the clip, Fuller works in the slot against the Lions again. This time he takes a hard step inside before swiping across with his right hand to clear the hands of the defender. He then quickly works into an outside release and is wide open as he breaks to the corner of the end zone, but the quarterback was working to the other side of the field.
The speed and those releases make Fuller a significant threat to opposing defenses. They have to be able to account for him on every play or they could get burned. Sometimes the threat of his speed going deep opens up other routes for Fuller, which allows him to do more than just run deep on every play.
The first play of this clip is a great example of how the speed Fuller possesses can play on the mind of opposing defenders. He’s running a simple under route on this play, but the corner plays the route as if he’s terrified of getting beat deep. Fuller’s jab step outside causes the corner to open his hips outside and leaves Fuller to work freely inside. The corner then uses a speed turn to try and get back on track, but Fuller uses a stutter step at the top of his route, which causes the corner to stop and start again. This allows Fuller to break inside with plenty of separation. On the second play, Fuller runs a curl route. Things like curls, hitches and comeback routes are all extremely effective routes for receivers with deep speed because defenders have to respect the vertical threat first. Fuller releases inside and challenges the corner vertically before sharply breaking off his route. The corner has to turn and run with Fuller to try and stay with him on any potential vertical route, so he can’t cut off as sharply as Fuller did, meaning Fuller has plenty of separation on the route.
The third play sees Fuller run what’s often known as the Miami route. The route is designed to look like an over route or crossing route before breaking back outside. Fuller works inside towards the hashmarks and forces the corner to commit to running with him on the crossing route before quickly breaking back outside. The corner takes extra steps to turn and Fuller left wide open outside for a nice gain.
The speed certainly causes issues for defenders, but Fuller shouldn’t be labeled as just a speed receiver. He’s also very quick in and out of breaks, making him shifty and hard to cover.
Here, we initially see Fuller tight to the left of the formation near the goalline. The ball doesn’t come to him on this play, but it could easily have and probably should have. He runs an excellent route, taking an outside angle on his first few steps to open up the defender before breaking back inside on what appears to be a slant route. With the defender in trouble and desperately trying to get back on top of the slant, Fuller then suddenly stops and breaks back outside. He’s wide open in the flat but quarterback Deshaun Watson opts to take the more difficult option in the back of the end zone. On the second play, Fuller takes a choice route release before breaking inside. The release is a slow release deliberately made to widen the defender and open him up before suddenly cutting back across his face. Inside. Fuller runs it perfectly with the nice addition of a club and swim move to clear the hands of the defender as he breaks open over the middle.
On the third play, we see Fuller take an inside release and threaten the corner vertically before breaking sharply inside. He’s open initially as he breaks inside, but Watson feels pressure and is forced to scramble out of the pocket. Fuller shows off his shiftiness and awareness, breaking sharply back outside to not only beat the cornerback again, but make himself available to Watson. Watson finds him in the end zone, but the play was wiped out due to a holding penalty.
That shiftiness along with his speed make Fuller a threat after the catch too. While his frame might seem too slight for him to run over the middle, he was very effective running crossing routes and avoiding tackles after the catch to maximize the yards gained on each play.
The first play of this clip shows Fuller on one of the most popular and effective play-action concepts in the league. Some teams call this ‘Drift’, others know it as ‘Strike’. The idea is for Fuller to work vertical for a given number of steps before breaking inside. The angle of his route isn’t necessarily pre-defined, rather allowing him the freedom to find space over the middle. He does just that and makes the catch before continuing on his path after the catch on his way to a 37-yard gain.
The second play sees Fuller run a shallow cross from the back side of a four verticals concept. It’s a common variation of four verticals that allows the three vertical routes from one side clear space for the shallow cross from the other side of the field. Fuller works underneath into that space and does well to adjust to a late throw from the quarterback. He then breaks a tackle and manages to pick up a first down before being forced out of bounds. The third play is similar, but is a designed shallow cross screen. Instead of the other receivers running vertical, they fake the vertical routes before blocking their closest defender. Fuller secures the pass on his shallow cross before showing off his acceleration and change of direction skills to turn his route up the field and burst past defenders on his way to another first down.
The final play of the clip is a tunnel screen, which asks Fuller to take a step up the field before breaking back inside towards the ball. With his speed and quickness, Fuller is a significant threat on screen passes if the offense can get the initial defenders blocked. On this occasion, he manages to run by one defender and nearly jukes the deep safety, but is tackled for a gain of 20 yards.
Overall, Fuller is an electric receiver with the ability to stretch the field and create explosive plays. He shouldn’t be labelled purely a speedster though, as he has far more strings to his bow. He can win with his releases off the line of scrimmage, the quickness in his route running and elusiveness after the catch, to go along with the deep speed. He’s developed into a well-rounded receiver that for Washington, would fit perfectly opposite Terry McLaurin and force defenses to adjust their focus from purely taking away McLaurin, to being able to defend McLaurin while still accounting for the deep threat Fuller possesses.
However, signing Fuller would come with some risks. He’s yet to complete a full season in the NFL without missing time. His small frame has led to some injuries that have caused him to miss games. He averages just over 10 games a season throughout his five years in the NFL so far. On top of that, Fuller was suspended for six games at the end of last season for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. That caused him to miss the final five games of last season and will force him to miss the first game of the 2021 season too.
Sports contract site Spotrac currently projects Fuller to receive a four-year $67.8 million deal, with an average annual salary of nearly $17 million. His talent certainly merits that type of contract, but it’s a lot of money to a player that regularly misses games and has a PED suspension to his name too. Those two factors could well cause Fuller’s contract to become slightly more affordable in a market full of talented receivers, but he should still be an expensive high-upside risk.
Man this dude stays injured waaaay too much and now couple that with PED Suspension and it’s an easy pass for me. I mean he’s the prototypical wr I’m looking for to pair with Terry but the baggage is A back breaker for me. Honestly I prefer to totally stay away from free agent wrs this offseason altogether. I don’t think it’s possible to actually get the Value for production out of any of em due to their contracts which are all gonna be pretty monstrous man. Golladay would be the only one we may be able to break even with because he’s such a vertical Big play Dawg and 6point producer when healthy. Aside from that the Draft is looooaded with immediate impact receivers that would give Us superior value production numbers whilst they become the next generation of Stud free agents themselves. Them 80 million dollar contracts are monsters and although the players are dawgs I don’t think we need to saddle the cap like that