Chiefs DB Juan Thornhill discusses progress in return from ACL injury

Thornhill continues to make progress each and every week for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Kansas City Chiefs DB Juan Thornhill is closer to feeling like himself again following the Week 3 win over the Baltimore Ravens.

Thornhill tore his ACL in the final regular-season game of the 2019 NFL season against the Los Angeles Chargers. He trained tirelessly throughout the unique offseason impacted by COVID-19 to be able to have a chance to be ready to start the 2020 NFL season.

While Thornhill was out there in Week 1, through the first two weeks of the NFL season, the difference was noticeable. His range wasn’t quite what fans had seen during his dominant rookie season. His tackling wasn’t as precise and vicious as we’d previously seen. Despite the differences, he has stayed diligent and continued to work, knowing that everything would eventually come together.

“Well, first of all, I just like to say thanks to my coaches because with the game I had the second game, I missed a lot of tackles,” Thornhill told reporters on Wednesday. “Most of the time, some coaches they just give up on you and just try to take you out of the run game since I missed so many tackles, but they had faith in me, they still kept me in there and allow me to go in and redeem myself and actually put me in there and those runs to make those plays to show that I’m still there. I definitely feel like I’m getting back to where I was, it’s just all about confidence, making those plays just showing myself that I could do it.”

It’s not just the physical aspect of returning from injury for Thornhill, but the mental aspect too. He needs to have the confidence that he can stick his leg in the ground and drive. He needs that in the addition to the ability to physically do so. In Week 3, we saw a different player than we did in the first two weeks of the season.

Thornhill had a near-sack on Lamar Jackson in the first offensive drive for the Ravens. His range was shown off on a play that didn’t count in the second quarter. Thornhill would’ve notched a tackle for loss on Baltimore TE Nick Boyle, but a defensive holding penalty on L’Jarius Sneed nullified the play.

“Yeah, I mean talking to Tyrann (Mathieu) about it [ACL injuries] and everything, he’s been through it two times, and he told me there’s going to be sometimes I would be so close to making a play but I’m going to be a little short just because of the fact that I’m not comfortable and I’m not where I was,” Thornhill explained. “And like you said, I just have to remind myself like, ‘it’s going to come, just be confident’ because that’s the main thing. If you’re not confident in your ability, you’re not going to make any plays at all. So, I just see myself getting better each week and just pushing myself even harder each week in practice and hopefully, I’ll start making more plays.”

Mathieu has been someone that Thornhill has leaned on throughout this injury recovery and he provided solid advice here. While Thornhill is anxious to start intercepting passes, the goal is to get 1% better each and every day. He knows that at any given moment it could be his time to shine.

“You know, football things happen all the time,” Thornhill said. “I mean guys get hurt, guys get into trouble, anything could possibly happen but the thing is, we always have that next guy up mentality. So Coach (Dave) Merritt, you’re always talking about how everyone’s a star in our defense because you never know when your time is going to come like with (L’Jarius) Sneed going down this week, we have other guys that have to step up and be ready to play those snaps that he had and be ready to make those plays that come their way.”

His patience will be tested, but until Thornhill’s time comes, he’ll steadily grind toward getting back to where he was before his injury in 2019.

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