Chicago Bears shut down Kyle Fuller for the preseason after a knee scope

Kyle Fuller was drafted by former Chicago Bears general manager Phil Emery to play in a more zone based defense in 2014. What ever then Bears’ defensive coordinator Mel Tucker called his atrocious 2014 D, Fuller actually looked like a player with some potential. He was dinged up mush of that season, but he toughed it out to play in all 16 games (14 starts) and make 64 tackles, 4 interceptions, 3 forced fumbles, and defend 10 passes.

When the Bears cleaned house after that season, the new John Fox regime mentioned Fuller by name as a building block for the future. He had a rough start to the 2015 season, but I thought he eventually settled down and played decent football.

Current D under coordinator Vic Fangio likes to mix in more press man and pattern matching, and with a revamped front seven in Chicago, Fangio can run the defense he envisions.

Does Kyle Fuller fit the mold of a Fangio cornerback?

“We got a guy that’s played a lot of football, played a lot of football for us last year, played a fair amount his rookie season,” Fangio said via the Chicago Sun Times. “Now’s the year he should be ready to step up and become... We’ll find out exactly what he is... or isn’t.”

Fuller had three tackles in the preseason opener in 18 total snaps, but he’s been dealing with a sore knee, so the team decided to keep him in Chicago while they traveled to New England this week.

Now, according to WGN’s Adam Hoge, the Bears are going to shut him down for the remainder of the preseason slate to rest his ailing knee, with the hopes he can be ready to go for week 1.

With Fuller missing tonight and the all important dress rehearsal against the Kansas City Chiefs next week, I wonder if his starting spot is in jeopardy?

EDIT: After the game last night, head coach John Fox confirmed that Fuller had a knee scope and they he is “week to week.”

“It was kind of getting worse and worse and didn’t get better,” said Fox, “and I’m not a big fan of doing the same old stuff. I use a different word most of the time, but I think, you know, it was kind of bothering him, so we wanted to see and get it fixed. I think when we gets medically cleared, he will be back out there.”