Kansas City Chiefs have two legitimate Rookie of Year contenders
By Matt Conner
With Mecole Hardman and Juan Thornhill, the Kansas City Chiefs have two legitimate candidates to vie for Rookie of the Year honors.
It’s been a while since the Kansas City Chiefs had a couple key rookies that fans could root for on both sides of the ball with at least an outside chance of putting together a season so impressive that the Rookie of the Year award could be on the table. With wide receiver Mecole Hardman and safety Juan Thornhill, the Chiefs have both in place.
Over the last few years, the Chiefs have been busy trading away their top picks for other assets that fail to qualify for the offensive or defensive rookie of the year. Patrick Mahomes sat for a year after being taken, and Frank Clark cost a pretty penny. Of course, no one is complaining about such deals, but it’s just kept the Chiefs from being eligible for those kinds of awards.
Last season was a complete outlier in terms of impact rookies. The incoming class simply wasn’t that effective at all and guard Andrew Wylie ended up being honored with the team’s Mack Lee Hill award at season’s end—given each year to the best rookie on the roster. Wylie was a journeyman lineman who stepped in and did an admirable job filling in for an injured Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. Wylie was a revelation off the bench, but it’s not going to win any league-wide awards.
The key for a rookie at this stage is to not only have considerable talent but to also have the opportunity. Last season, injury cost Armani Watts the chance to show what he can do over the course of a full season, and Derrick Nnadi didn’t play enough as a rotational lineman. Other rookies simply didn’t perform well enough to even mention.
This coming season, the door should be wide open for playing time for both Hardman and Thornhill.