KC Chiefs news: Juan Thornhill will start camp on PUP list

The Chiefs placed Juan Thornhill on the PUP list on Friday.

The Kansas City Chiefs are still waiting on Juan Thornhill to hit the field as training camp gets underway and have placed him on the Physically Unable to Play list to start camp.

The team’s second-year safety is rehabilitating from a torn ACL suffered in the final game of the 2019 regular season. While Thornhill ended a magical season on a frustrating note, the reality is that the future remains bright after such a brilliant showing in his first year in the league. Reviews were all positive for Thornhill, who was a Week 1 starter next to Tyrann Mathieu in the secondary.

All accounts from the offseason have been good on Thornhill’s progress and he’s widely expected to be ready for the start of the season. However it will be interesting to watch the time it takes for him to begin to practice again with teammates and just how much the Chiefs push him in camp.

Thornhill was a Chiefs second-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft out of Virginia, the final pick used in the Marcus Peters trade to the L.A. Rams (along with safety Armani Watts). Thornhill turned heads early in the preseason and earned a starting spot as the Chiefs remade their pass defense by releasing Ron Parker and Eric Berry in the previous year.

The Chiefs can turn to other safeties like Watts and the newly signed Tedric Thompson to take some of Thornhill’s deep reps if he’s not quite healthy to start the season as expected.

Thornhill had 58 total tackles and 3 interceptions for the Chiefs in his rookie campaign.