Why Kansas City Chiefs safety Juan Thornhill sees a rebound season coming this fall
Third-year Chiefs safety Juan Thornhill didn’t do much during the team’s offseason workouts and mandatory minicamp.
For the most part, Thornhill was relegated to working off to the side or sitting out team-related drills entirely.
This was a somewhat surprising development, as the Virginia Cavaliers product suffered no new injury or setback in the knee he had surgically repaired following an ACL tear late in 2019.
Turns out the cautious approach was by design.
“(During the offseason workouts) I just wanted to work a little bit more on my knee just to make sure I was 100% for the season,” Thornhill said Sunday. “I still got some work out there.
“I was beside Coach Spags (defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo), communicating calls,” Thornhill continued. “I got individual drills just to get my legs moving. I wasn’t completely out of it, but it was just more of a mental thing so I could get back to camp and be 100%.”
Thornhill’s strategy paid off: He was one of the select players arriving early in St. Joseph for training camp with the Chiefs’ quarterbacks and rookies.
Through two days of on-field work, Thornhill has participated fully in individual and team drills. More importantly, he feels good.
“The knee feels great,” he said. “I love that Coach (Andy Reid) brought me out here for this little camp here, because I’ve got a chance to just get moving, get my feet back up underneath me, and I feel better than I have in a long time.”
The same couldn’t be said for Thornhill last season, when it was clear the dynamic safety wasn’t quite himself less than a year removed from the ACL tear.
During his rookie campaign in 2019, Thornhill emerged as a force alongside fellow safety Tyrann Mathieu. Thornhill started 16 games at free safety, totaling 57 tackles, three interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown, and five passes defensed in 1,011 defensive snaps.
The 2020 season saw a different Thornhill. He appeared in all 16 games but made just eight starts. That was also by design, as the Chiefs slowly worked him into the rotation. He finished the season with 41 tackles and three passes defensed in 762 defensive snaps.
By his own admission, Thornhill didn’t feel quite right — mentally or physically — early in the 2020 season. But he became more comfortable in the campaign’s second half.
“Honestly, I had to play it off a little bit,” he said. “I wasn’t at 100%, but it was just more about the mental (aspect), like I had to tell myself, ‘It’s going to hurt, but you’ve got to play through it.’
“So that’s why, when the end of the season came, you saw me making more plays just because it was more mental, and I just pushed myself through that mental block.”
With more recovery time and the two days of on-field work in St. Joe under his belt, that barrier is officially lifted. Now fully healthy Thornhill declared himself ready for the 2021 regular season.
He envisions becoming one of the league’s elite safeties, with a teammate helping to push him.
“I’m putting myself at the top of the list,” he said. “I’m going to compete with Tyrann.
“Tyrann is a heck of a player, so we compete every single day. He says he’s going to get an interception this game; I’m going to get two. That’s how we just compete against each other, so I’m going to put myself at the top of the list, for sure.”
