Ten takeaways from Kansas City Chiefs training camp
The safety position looks significantly better
Look, we were all expecting this to be the case, but I’m happy to report that the safety position will in fact be MUCH better this season. I feel 100% comfortable after just two days at camp to say that both Tyrann Mathieu and Juan Thornhill will be better than any safety that played for the Chiefs last season. Keep in mind, the duo of Ron Parker and Eric Murray had almost 1,200 combined coverage snaps for the Chiefs last season.
I wrote earlier this offseason that opposing quarterbacks had a QB rating of 107.9 when targeting K.C.’s safeties last season. That ranked 28th in the NFL. I fully expect that number to be much improved in 2019 thanks to Mathieu and Thornhill.
The Honey Badger is as advertised. He’s a jack of all trades that can move all over the field depending on what the defense wants to do. I don’t know that he’s elite at any one thing, but the fact that he’s at least good at almost everything is a huge plus. Frankly, last season we were playing safeties at times that weren’t good an anything, let alone everything.
I haven’t tried to hide the fact that I’m a huge Juan Thornhill fan and believe he was an absolute steal in the late second round. When you watch him move around the field on the back end, it’s clear that he’s a better athlete than we’ve had at safety since Eric Berry began to have injury issues slow him down.
While Berry brought the “thump” from the safety position, Thornhill is smoother. His instincts on the back end combined with good change of direction and ball skills may just make him the best ball hawk the Chiefs have had at safety in a very long time. I was a massive Eric Berry fan, but even I have to admit that he never was much of a ball hawk in the NFL. I’m trying not to set the bar for Thornhill too high as a rookie, but if he continues to make plays in the preseason games, I don’t know if I’ll be able to contain myself.
It should be noted that Dan Sorensen is still running ahead of Thornhill with the first team defense. Thornhill is rotating in, but they appear to be giving the veteran the nod for the time being while the rookie continues to learn. However, I think you’ll see plenty of Thornhill with the first string both in preseason games and when Week 1 rolls around. Sorensen is still a valuable safety and I expect the Chiefs to use plenty of three safety sets with all three players on the field this season.
Jordan Lucas has been out of practice lately with an injury and Armani Watts is still clearly behind those top three on the depth chart at this point. I know some Chiefs fans were predicting Sorensen to get cut, but it certainly looks like he’ll be one of the top three guys and get playing time this season. I have no problems with that. Sorensen is a solid number three safety and special teams player.
Now let’s talk about the linebackers for a minute.