Former Lions draft pick Travis Fulgham thinks he can dominate again
Former Lion Travis Fulgham had a sweet stretch a couple years ago, and it’s safe to say he thinks he can recapture that form.
Travis Fulgham was taken in the sixth round of the 2019 draft by the Detroit Lions, and he spent most of his rookie season on the practice squad. He got into three games, with zero catches on three targets as he also played some special teams.
The Lions waived Fulgham in August of 2020, and after a brief stop with the Green Bay Packers he landed with the Philadelphia Eagles. Over a four-game stretch that season with the Eagles (Week 5-Week 8), he had 27 receptions for 378 yards and three touchdowns. Add in the previous game, his Eagles’ debut in Week 4, and his 29 catches for 435 yards led the NFL over that five-week stretch.
But after that, as he apparently fell into then-head coach Doug Pederson’s doghouse, Fulgham totaled nine receptions over the rest of the 2020 season (eight games played).
Philadelphia waived Fulgham last August. He made his way to the Denver Broncos last year, appearing in one game late last season.
Travis Fulgham thinks he can still “take over a game”
With that four-game stretch in 2020, Fulgham looked like another miss for the Lions. Or at least someone, even as a sixth-round pick, they gave up on too soon. If there was ever a chance they’d bring him back, with a different regime than the one that drafted him, it’d been last season when the wide receiver room was thin.
Via Nick Kosmider of The Athletic (subscription required), Fulgham fully believes the 2020 version of himself isn’t gone.
"All I can do is stick to my game and do what I do,” Fulgham said, “I didn’t go anywhere. It’s just kind of how the situation ended up. But I haven’t gone anywhere. My game is still here. I can take over a game if I want to.”"
The Broncos have a deep group of wide receivers (Jerry Jeudy, Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick, KJ Hamler), with fifth-round pick Montrell Washington an easy favorite for the WR5 spot. So Fulgham’s chances to make Denver’s 53-man roster look iffy, at best.
Fulgham would not be the first player to have a brief stretch where he looked like a star, only to fade into obscurity after. Lions’ fans can take solace that the team didn’t cut ties too soon with a budding star, unless Fulgham’s belief in himself comes to fruition on the field again somehow. But it feels like that ship has sailed.