Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie overcame ‘monster turf’ injury by creating a system
When a player falls to the ground without being tackled, credit’s often given to “the turf monster,” an imaginary creature that lives below the surface of the field.
But the Chiefs dealt with something worse than a turf monster in their season opener at Arizona.
Monster turf.
Two players, kicker Harrison Butker and rookie cornerback Trent McDuffie, were lost to non-contact injuries that day against the Cardinals. Both would proceed to miss a substantial number of subsequent games.
But the villain that felled them wasn’t lurking below the Cardinals’ grassy field. Instead, Butker and McDuffie’s respective injuries were caused by loose turf on the playing surface in Arizona.
Butker missed four games with an ankle injury and has been shaky since making his return. McDuffie was placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury and missed six games before returning last week against the Tennessee Titans.
“Going out (injured) the first game is always pretty frustrating and pretty disheartening,” McDuffie said, “because you have all these goals, and you have this plan in place, and it doesn’t go that way.”
The Chiefs traded up in the first round this spring to land McDuffie at No. 21, and he won a starting job during training camp. In the opener, he played 32 snaps and was not targeted once by Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray in 21 coverage plays because of his sticky defense.
And McDuffie picked up where he left off against the Titans. He played 96% of the snaps. On 24 coverage snaps, Titans quarterback Malik Willis targeted him twice and McDuffie didn’t allow a catch.
“I thought he made some nice plays,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “He was in good position. His ability to go up through the receiver, but not interfere with them, I thought was big. And he tackled, so he was in position to tackle and he did a nice job there.”
The Chiefs invested heavily in their secondary during the draft, using five of of their 10 picks on defensive backs. Four — cornerbacks Jaylen Watson and Joshua Williams, along with McDuffie and safety Bryan Cook — have become playing-time regulars. And the Chiefs showed additional confidence in their cornerbacks group by recently trading veteran Rashad Fenton.
McDuffie said he made the most of his recovery time, reaching a point that he was gearing up to play a game knowing that his return wasn’t imminent that weekend.
“I kind of kept the system of, ‘Let’s just keep this going,’” he explained. “When I did come back, it wasn’t anything short of what I was already doing. Staying disciplined was the biggest thing for me to be able to come back the way I am now.”
Here are some other players to watch for Sunday at noon — aside from quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Trevor Lawrence — when the Chiefs play host to the Jacksonville Jaguars:
Chiefs tight end Noah Gray
Gray had his best game in two NFL seasons last week: three receptions for 45 yards. His tap-to-himself 27-yarder on third down in overtime kept alive the game-winning field-goal possession. He has 12 receptions this year after logging seven as a rookie in 2021.
Chiefs defensive tackle Khalen Saunders
Saunders had a sack among his six tackles against the Titans and was instrumental in keeping RB Derrick Henry in check after halftime. The Chiefs face another strong running game this week against the Jaguars.
Jaguars running back Travis Etienne
Lawrence’s teammate at Clemson, Etienne has been running wild over the past month. He arrives at Arrowhead with three straight 100-yard rushing games, including 156 in a loss to the Broncos two weeks ago. The Chiefs’ rushing defense ranks 23rd.
Jaguars defensive end Dawuane Smoot
Smoot is part of the Jags’ D-end position rotation and is having an excellent season. He’s come up with five sacks, including two in last weekend’s victory over the Raiders — this despite not playing in so much as 50% of Jacksonville’s defensive snaps in any given game this season.
This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 6:00 AM.