Chiefs running back Darwin Thompson to fantasy football owners: ‘Go ahead and draft me’
Conversation around the Chiefs’ running backs changed in late April with a new central figure that, if all goes as planned, will overwhelm that conversation for years to come.
But for all of the appropriate buzz surrounding first-round draft pick Clyde Edwards-Helaire atop the depth chart, the lone running back selected by the Chiefs in last year’s draft has drifted into the background.
Remember Darwin Thompson? Just one year ago, as a rookie, he drew the training camp glow, the what-if anticipation.
That’s all but gone now.
“If they’re sleeping (on me),” Thompson shrugged, “then I need to wake them up,”
It’s a bit ironic, all things considered. When Thompson arrived in Kansas City last season, he was “wide-eyed,” a “deer in headlights,” as he described it. Yet he generated no shortage of enthusiasm before he had even played a snap in the NFL.
By season’s end, he’d carried the ball just 37 times for 128 yards and one touchdown.
As he enters his second training camp, though, he does so with a newfound confidence — because of some newfound preparation and experience.
“Last year, I was timid to the league itself. I didn’t really play my game or play Darwin Thompson’s play,” he said, adding, “This year, I know what to expect and I can perfect my craft.”
As he tried to increase his draft stock last year, he worked on mastering the sorts of drills he knew he’d be evaluated on at the annual scouting combine. Worked to improve his straight-line speed so his 40-yard dash time would pop. The metrics stood out enough for the Chiefs to expend a sixth-round pick draft pick to select him.
On the flip side, he lost an offseason of true football preparation.
“I didn’t get to work on my jump cuts, my cuts. I wasn’t confident in my ankles and my knees coming (into the) season because all I was doing was running for the 40, training for the combine,” he said. “But this offseason, I was able to focus on catching the ball, running downfield routes, cuts, cutting off my left ankle, cutting off my inside foot. Just unorthodox movements is what I’ve been working on.
“During the combine process, I wasn’t able to do any of that. And I took full advantage of the extra time we had this year with the COVID stuff going on and worked on everything that I should have been my first year.”
That’s the body preparation. Half the work.
The other half? The mental preparation that he didn’t exactly anticipate as he stepped into the league. Chiefs coaches were critical of his pass protection during his rookie season. It wasn’t about his willingness. It was about execution.
So throughout the offseason, Thompson said he trained himself on where blitzes derive. On who is mostly likely to blitz. On what they might look like pre-snap.
“It wasn’t too much of picking up the blitz, because I’m not afraid of contract — it was seeing or recognizing where the blitz is coming from,” Thompson said. “We got some of the best safeties in the game; Tyrann Mathieu disguises it really well. Me seeing it here in practice, once we hit game time, I’ll be able to see it. Last year, I feel like I couldn’t even see above the line of scrimmage (because) the o-linemen were so big. I didn’t see linebackers and things like that. The game felt so fast.
“But now I’m in the film room, and I see it every day. So when I hit the field, boom, my eyes go there now. I can expect who’s going to come. I got tabs in my head every play for each play what I’m going to be looking at.”
Altogether, Thompson spoke with a confidence on Wednesday that wasn’t always evident in 2019. He is more prepared for this league, he emphasized many times over.
But he remains in a crowded room, even after incumbent starter Damien Williams opted out of the 2020 season. Edwards-Helaire is the assumed No. 1. The Chiefs added DeAndre Washington via free agency. And Darrel Williams is back.
Thompson said he is “just trying to be the cherry on top of that sundae” in a high-powered offense. Or, in fantasy football terms ...
“I told a lot of people that drafted me last year, they should’ve cut me early. They see I wasn’t hot in preseason. They should’ve cut me,” Thompson said. “But this year, go ahead and draft me.”