Chiefs’ Zach Fulton makes most of first start at center

Zach Fulton wanted only one thing to happen in the first game at center of his football playing life.

Rather, one thing to happen over and over again.

“As long as the play kept going, I knew I did a good job,” Fulton said.

There were no botched snaps to quarterback Chase Daniel, no penalties on Fulton and a few road-paving blocks.

“Overall, I think it went pretty well,” Fulton said. “It was pretty fun out there.”

Getting the first snap out of the way was important, Fulton said, but what immediately followed was also worth noting.

After the Chiefs’ created the game’s first break, a Daniel Sorensen interception of a Nick Foles’ deflected pass, Kansas City was in business at the Rams’ 8. Spencer Ware took the handoff and found a lane that opened because the 6-5, 316-pound Fulton powered tackle Ethan Westbrooks out of the play.

“I thought it played really well,” Daniel said. “He’s a big dude up there. You don’t get much push in the pocket when he’s up there. For playing center for the first time in a game, I thought the snaps were great, his (shot) gun snaps were good. He didn’t play nervous. He led the line out there tonight.”

Fulton started 16 games at right guard last season, his first after the Chiefs made him their sixth-round pick in the 2014 draft. He was a three-year starter at right guard at Tennessee.

“It’s not too much of a difference,” Fulton said. “Certain schemes and plays I have to do different things, obviously. But it was neat doing something different.”

But for the second straight year at training camp this season, Fulton played some center as the Chiefs sought versatility.

“You’ve got to have those guys, guards and centers that can switch spots,” offensive coordinator Doug Pederson said in August. “It just makes you a little more flexible and dynamic up front.”

Center had gone through a makeover over the past month. Eric Kush opened camp and spent the early days running with the starters.

But rookie Mitch Morse, the second-round selection from Missouri, took over the spot and started there in the first three preseason games. Kush entered Thursday’s game at center in the third quarter.

“I just wanted to play him a half, period, so I wanted to see him at center and get him some work and get him out of there,” Chiefs Coach Andy Reid said. “We know Kush can play there, and Mitch.”

Morse, Kush and Daniel Munyer, a rookie free agent from Colorado, had taken all the snaps in preseason games until Thursday.

The reserves who started on the offensive line on Thursday, starting at left tackle: Jarrod Pughsley, Munyer, Fulton, Paul Fanaika and Derek Sherrod.

The starters in the preseason games have been Donald Stephenson, Ben Grubbs, Morse, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Fanaika.

Starting left tackle Eric Fisher didn’t play in any preseason game because of a high ankle sprain. Jeff Allen, penciled in at right guard, started the opener but missed the rest of the games with a knee sprain.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 9:28 PM with the headline "Chiefs’ Zach Fulton makes most of first start at center."