Rams’ Jordan Fuller goes from late draft pick to team leader
Picked 199th overall in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL draft, the second-year safety from Ohio State will play a vital role as a defensive signal-caller and the youngest team captain this season.
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Rams’ Jordan Fuller goes from late draft pick to team leader
By the time the Rams picked Jordan Fuller in the 2020 NFL draft, most people had stopped watching.Jordan Fuller, especially, had stopped watching.
It was the draft’s third and last day. Fuller had been pleased to see a half-dozen of his Ohio State teammates selected, but not so happy to see defensive backs he considered no more than his equal already chosen. In Florida, separated from family by COVID-19 travel restrictions, he welcomed encouragement in FaceTime chats and distraction in an Uno game with a friend.
“To have those days go by, I was definitely getting frustrated toward the end,” Fuller said. “Probably around the time I got picked.”
Late on the Saturday afternoon, the phone lit up with news from the Rams that the New Jersey native was going to Los Angeles.
One season later, Fuller has risen from sixth-round pick to starting safety, and from an idle game of Uno to the more complex and consequential challenge of calling defensive signals for the Rams when they open the 2021 season against the Chicago Bears in a Sunday night game on Sept. 12 at SoFi Stadium.
The defensive signal-caller is sometimes called the quarterback of the defense. Given the importance of keeping the defense at or near its 2020 heights, Fuller could be as vital to the Rams’ Super Bowl hopes as Matthew Stafford, the new quarterback of the offense.
As a sign of respect, Rams players named Fuller, 23, the youngest of their eight team captains Wednesday.
“We’ve seen his growth since he stepped on the field here. It’s been special to see,” said All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey, also a captain. “I was super proud of him.”
“That is extremely special and extremely rare,” Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said of Fuller’s quick rise to team leadership. “It says it all about the young man.”
‘ULTIMATE CONFIDENCE’
Like John Johnson, the safety who called the Rams’ defensive signals before signing with the Cleveland Browns in March, Fuller appears easy-going with an ever-ready smile and bright personality.He might have been born with that presence. His mother is Cindy Mizelle, a singer who has performed with, among others, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Luther Vandross. His uncle, by marriage on his father’s side, is Sinbad, the comedian. (His older brother, Devin Fuller, played wide receiver for UCLA and the Atlanta Falcons.)
To Morris, Fuller has a personality just made for the player wearing the green-dot sticker on his helmet, signifying he’s the defensive player with the tiny two-way radio in his headgear for receiving alignments from a coach and then shouting out orders.
“The guy’s just even, calm. Nothing’s going to bother him,” Morris said. “He plays with ultimate confidence. He’s an easy guy to coach and talk to in all of the fiery moments.”
The 199th player drafted caught a break early in his Rams career and ran with it. Taylor Rapp, expected to start alongside Johnson, missed the first three weeks of 2020 training camp with a knee injury. Fuller got a chance to prove himself in practice with the first unit, and ended up starting the season-opening victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
If fans at SoFi Stadium didn’t know who he was yet, Fuller made himself known with a game-saving play in the fourth quarter of that prime-time game, tackling CeeDee Lamb a yard short of a first down after a pass from Dak Prescott on fourth-and-3 at the Rams’ 11.
Fuller’s inherited ease in the spotlight showed again in his second game back from a shoulder/neck injury that cost him parts of October and November. In a Monday night game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he intercepted two passes by Tom Brady in the second half of the Rams’ three-point win.
The weird connection: Brady, too, was a 199th overall draft pick.
When Rapp went on injured reserve with another knee injury in November, Fuller became the top-ranked defense’s only rookie starter for the rest of the regular season and the Rams’ two playoff games.
“It’s not about what round you’re picked in,” Fuller said in an interview after practice Wednesday at the Rams’ facility in Thousand Oaks. “It’s really your situation, on a case-by-case basis. I’m blessed enough to be able to come here and contribute right away.”
UNDERESTIMATED
Rams general manager Les Snead was asked if he envisioned Fuller replacing Johnson when he picked the 6-foot-2, 203-pound All-Big Ten safety.“If I sat here and (said) ‘yes,’ you should say, ‘Then why the hell did you wait ’til the sixth round?’” Snead said.
Fuller wasn’t even the first safety the Rams drafted in 2020. That was Utah’s Terrell Burgess, whom they took in the third round. Snead said Burgess checked the box on a more pressing need, the versatility to step up into nickel-cornerback coverage.
“Then, somewhere along the way, you’re like, ‘Wait a minute, Jordan Fuller is still there,’” Snead said.
Although Fuller was rated as high as a third-round choice in draft projections, he was forecast to go in the seventh and final round by NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein.
“Lacks desired range and long speed,” Zierlein wrote, saying Fuller “could compete for a backup role as a split-safety with the potential to match up with tight ends.”
Most teams probably saw Fuller that way. But the Rams, Snead said, saw him fitting in better in their defense, which would allow him to use his vision of the field to make plays on receivers in front of him.
“You shouldn’t wait ’til the sixth round for someone like Jordan Fuller,” Snead said. “He’s only played his rookie year, so he’s got to continue doing it. But I’m not surprised (by his success so far).
“Usually those guys that can absorb a lot of football and spit it out quickly, they’re going to play well wherever they play. But safety is one of those where you really want that.”
Fuller’s quick mind failed him when he was asked how it feels to be where he’ll be next Sunday, helping to run the Rams’ defense, after having the Uno cards stacked against him a year ago.
First, he praised God, and then said: “I can’t really put it into words. I’m really grateful. I try to give this team everything I’ve got.”
But Morris, the defensive coordinator, had no trouble summing up the Rams’ fortune.
“You don’t luck into those kinds of kids,” Morris said, crediting Snead and the team’s scouts for spotting the potential in players like Fuller. “(They) really dive in deep into them and finding out who they were as people.”
The result, Morris said, is: “We hit the jackpot.”
