{"id":910724,"date":"2026-06-05T14:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/910724\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:51:15","slug":"reviewing-rookie-cornerback-andre-fuller-and-his-fit-with-the-seahawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/910724\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviewing rookie cornerback Andre Fuller and his fit with the Seahawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Seattle Seahawks<\/a> sure seem to like their big defensive backs. Nick Emmanwori<\/a>, Kam Chancellor<\/a>, Julian Neal, Brandon Browner<\/a>, Riq Woolen<\/a>, just to name a handful. With the 20th pick of the seventh round, the Seahawks landed another good-sized defensive back in Toledo\u2019s Andre Fuller. The average draft projection for Fuller was somewhere in the sixth round<\/a>. John Schneider deciding to draft him in the seventh round could be seen as a steal in the 2026 draft<\/a>. With so much depth at the cornerback position already, how will Fuller<\/a> make a name for himself on the Seahawks? Is he a head coach Mike Macdonald type of player? Let\u2019s find out!<\/p>\n

At 6\u20191\u201d and 200 lbs, Andre Fuller is above average in size for a cornerback. The average NFL cornerback is 5\u201911\u201d and 192 lbs according to MockDraftable<\/a>. On the Seahawks current roster<\/a>, he is the third biggest cornerback on the team, with Tyrone Broden, formerly a wide receiver but now converting to cornerback this season, being listed as 6\u20195\u201d and 195 lbs. Fellow rookie Julian Neal is listed as 6\u20193\u201d and 203 lbs. All three players are vying for the cornerback three spot left empty by the departure of Woolen, who is now with the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>. Woolen himself is an above average cornerback at 6\u20194\u201d and 204 lbs. He is also very athletic, which helps him in covering those bigger receivers that have speed in their game.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

While Fuller is about average in terms of speed per combine testing, running a 4.49 second 40 yard dash<\/a>, he is quite athletic. He has a 9.05 Relative Athletic Score<\/a> in the most most up to date calculation. The cornerback room average Relative Athletic Score for the Seahawks is 7.96, with Shemar Jean-Charles having the lowest at 5.09 while Neal has the highest at 9.28. His combine numbers are similar to Joe Haden<\/a>, per Pro Football Network. Though for an overall size and athleticism comp, they have both Jaylon Johnson<\/a> and Jalen Collins<\/a> as players that he is similar to.<\/p>\n

Toughness and hard work are traits that Macdonald looks for in his players. Fuller certainly has those. Per Emory Hunt<\/a>, Fuller \u201cdoesn\u2019t back down from a challenge at the line of scrimmage\u201d and has \u201can accurate punch and is able to stay in phase down the field\u201d which shows those exact qualities. During his collegiate career<\/a> he had 116 tackles, six and a half tackles for a loss, 37 passes defended, two sacks, and four interceptions (with one resulting in a touchdown). He is a versatile player, having played wide receiver and cornerback in high school, and both safety and cornerback in college.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks have shown to value that type of versatility in their players during this current iteration of the team, and watching Fuller play you can see why. Having that experience in both offensive and defensive positions keys him into what the receivers are trying to do on routes, as he \u201chas a natural feel as a man-cover defender to get physical at the line, quickly find his balance (regardless of his footwork) and stay with route runners through the stem\u201d as Dane Brugler surmises.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks also want their players to show leadership qualities. Being the oldest of six siblings, Fuller grew up being a leader in his family. Being a no-star recruit coming out of high school, he had to work hard to prove himself. Starting off signing with Arkansas-Pine Bluff, he played there for two seasons leading the team in passes defended and interception in his second year. He then transferred to Toledo for the next four years, but missed the 2024 season due to a hernia.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Fuller came back in 2025 and had his best season since 2021. That type of production after recovering from surgery shows the kind of hard work and dedication that he puts into his craft, and is a staple Seahawk mindset. Leaders do not stay down after a set back. Instead, they get up, dust themselves off, and come back working twice as hard. That is exactly what Fuller did.<\/p>\n

As tough as he is, and as hard of a worker as he is, Fuller has plenty of work to do. He can at times tackle too high, and does not have the speed that Woolen has. The cornerback depth right now is nine players deep. The last two seasons the Seahawks have kept five on the 53-man roster and one to two on the practice squad. That means the Seahawks are likely to keep somewhere between six to seven cornerbacks. If he hopes to make it, Fuller will need to prove that he has the coverage ability to beat out Julian Neal, Nehemiah Pritchett<\/a>, Noah Igbinoghene<\/a>, Tyrone Broden, Michael Dansby and Shemar Jean-Charles.<\/p>\n

Being able to be a contributor on special teams coverage unit will also likely be a factor. Cornerbacks are expected to play a part on Jay Harbaugh\u2019s squad, which was ranked the sixth-best special teams unit of all time by DVOA<\/a> and the number two special teams last season. Best of luck to the young man. The cornerback and special teams battle\u2019s during OTA\u2019s, training camp and preseason are shaping up to be exciting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Seattle Seahawks sure seem to like their big defensive backs. Nick Emmanwori, Kam Chancellor, Julian Neal, Brandon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[103580,48082,3334,7,7102,121962,16149,30098,73381,26440,2860,11312,6,297,9958,109,7127,3268,238,237,261,2635,10275,44496],"class_list":["post-910724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seattle-seahawks","tag-andre-fuller","tag-brandon-browner","tag-cornerback","tag-football","tag-fuller","tag-jalen-collins","tag-jaylon-johnson","tag-joe-haden","tag-julian-neal","tag-kam-chancellor","tag-mike-macdonald","tag-nehemiah-pritchett","tag-nfl","tag-nick-emmanwori","tag-noah-igbinoghene","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-pro-football-network","tag-riq-woolen","tag-seahawks","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-seattleseahawks","tag-tyrone-broden","tag-will-fuller"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116698066648800945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}