Bears Declining CB Kyle Fuller’s Fifth-Year Option

Bears GM Ryan Pace announced Saturday that they will decline to exercise CB Kyle Fuller’s fifth-year option.

The fifth-year option would have cost the Bears $8,526,000 for the 2018 season, but was guaranteed only for injury and wouldn’t have prevented them from working on a long-term extension over the next year.

Fuller underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee last summer and the expectation was that he would miss several weeks. However, the Bears ultimately placed him on injured reserve a few weeks into the regular season before later designating him as their player to return from injured reserve.

However, Chicago declined to do so and he reverted to injured reserve without ever playing a snap for them in 2016.

Fuller, 25, is a former first-round pick of the Bears back in 2014. He’s currently in the final year of his four-year, $9,687,002 contract and set to make a base salary of $1,740,954 for the 2017 season.

In 2015, Fuller appeared in all 16 games for the Bears and recorded 55 tackles, two interceptions and nine pass defenses. Pro Football Focus had him rated as the No. 37 cornerback out of 111 qualifying player.