Kansas City Chiefs DB Juan Thornhill is at training camp a bit early this week.
Thornhill would typically report to training camp with the veterans on Monday, but Thornhill joined the injured players, reporting to camp a few days early. This is not because of a new injury suffered late in the season or during the offseason. This is because Thornhill was still struggling late into last season with his knee injury suffered in Week 17 of the 2019 NFL season.
“The knee feels great,” Thornhill told reporters on Sunday. “I love that Coach 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.”
During OTAs, Thornhill was held to limited work, but it was through his own volition. He wanted to make sure that he was doing the work that he needed to do to be able to start out the 2021 NFL season 100% percent, both mentally and physically.
“OTAs I just wanted to work a little bit more on my knee just to make sure I was 100 percent for the season,” Thornhill said. “I still got some work out there. I was beside Coach Spags (Steve Spagnuolo) communicating calls, 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 percent.”
From Weeks 2-6 during the 2020 NFL season, Thornhill played nearly 100% of the defensive snaps for Kansas City. Beginning in Week 7, the team began to dial back his snaps. It may have been understood that Thornhill wasn’t 100% in his return from injury, but it wasn’t said by the defensive back until today.
“Honestly, I had to play it off a little bit,” Thornhill said. “I wasn’t at 100 percent, but it was just more about the mental. 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.”
Thornhill did start to gain back that confidence in his knee during the end of the season. It might have culminated in the defensive performance he had against the Buffalo Bills in the AFC title game. He played over 75% of the defensive snaps and had four pass breakups during the game. Still, it’s been tough to overcome the mental aspect of the injury.
One player that he’s leaned on throughout the whole process is Tyrann Mathieu, who has twice torn his ACL as a professional.
“I had conversations with Tyrann (Mathieu) when I tore my ACL,” Thornhill said. “He’s been through it two times, and he was telling me there were going to be some times that I was frustrated, and I was going to be a step slower on the play or things like that and I saw that during the season. There were multiple times I could’ve made an interception or knocked the ball down, but I was half a second too late. But the biggest thing is just staying confident, keep working with Rick (Burkholder) and the guys, strengthening my knee, staying on top of recovery and I’ll be back to where I was my rookie year.”
That’s the goal for this season too — Thornhill wants to get back to that type of confident and dominant play that he showed as a rookie in Kansas City. He says that it all starts with putting himself first and competing with his teammates during training camp and the preseason.
“I’m putting myself at the top of the list,” Thornhill said. “I’m going to compete with Tyrann (Mathieu). 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.”
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