Chiefs: A Thorn in Opponent’s Heel

Chiefs: A Thorn in Opponent’s Heel – I was trying to recall how I felt about the available players in the secondary for the 2019 draft. Juan Thornhill was on my list of course. At the time though, I thought two other players were better suited for the Chiefs, at least as I saw it. They were gone in round one.

Don Juan — Just in Time

To which Author should I attribute a Thornhill allegory? Lord Byron and Don Juan or Carlos Castaneda. It must be Castaneda because magic stuff happens when Thornhill is on the field. Or it could be a Don Juan dealing with the heart in which case the literary reference would be Lord Byron. At any rate what the Chiefs “Don Juan” found was a path with heart – a true path upon which he meanders in wonder and appreciation.

A Player With Heart

Juan Thornhill arrived from a draft that turned out to be a wonder in itself and he immediately made his role as Safety his own. Juan was in competition for the Chiefs RoY in 2019 (Mecole Hardman won the award) though he was injured in week 17 and missed out on the post season.

Thornhill’s path was clear and he won it outright, superseding Armani Watts in winning the position. For Thornhill, the path was a path and not an affront to his playing partner Tyrann Mathieu, nor the players he surpassed: Armani Watts or Daniel Sorensen. His path was clear of debris and detritus and he made his way along that path with heart and he did not look back. He asked himself if this path had heart. His answer was yes and the path was good.

Thornhill Draft Metrics and NCAA Numbers

Juan Thornhill had many suitors. The Cowboys wanted him, the Chargers, the Rams looked at him but the Chiefs filled reams of paper in analyzing his playing style and success at the NCAA level. At Virginia Thornhill provided instinctive reads on defense whether is was run or pass. He was judged to have a high football intellect and was decisive in diagnosing each play. In this way, Thornhill was a downhill defender and was fluid in three levels of defense, always reading where to intersect the pass at the point of catch or position himself for a PD and/or an INT. One of the things that made him a fit for the Chiefs was his willingness and ability to make big hits on ball carriers in run defense. This was enough to make him a top level recruit for a Chiefs draft pick and he was drafted in the 2nd round., pick #63.

In his last year for the Cavaliers, Thornhill had 6 takeaways which is an outstanding performance by any DB to go along with 7 PB’s and 98 tackles. His preceding year as a Junior in 2017, Juan had 4 INT’s, 12 PB’s and 63 tackles. In his three years as a starter, Thornhill had 13 INT’s. He was a playmaker in college and this showed up with his play with the Chiefs in 2019.

One NFL system of evaluation had Thornhill as the 2nd best Safety behind Abram of Mississippi St. Go figure that one or how it was that the Chiefs were able to get Thornhill in the draft. What I like about his playing style is that he’s aggressive and fluid with very good twitchiness. In fact, with the latter attribute, he can swap up to the CB role. His great anticipation for the point of catch made him a defender that opposing teams tried to avoid. If they didn’t he made them pay with great success taking the down hill closure to the ball and breaking up passes or preventing YAC if a catch was made. If a pass was going to be closely contested? Thornhill’s my guy. It was my judgement of watching film told me that the over-all critique of a weakness in closing speed was off-base. Some defined it as length. Pshaww. Some defined it as inept closing burst. Pshawww.

What he lacked? Length according to many analysts. This puzzled me quite a lot. For working with this as a “weakness” he has the perfect playing partner and tutor in Tyrann Mathieu. Something worked in camp and preseason and all during the 2019 year. Thornhill showed himself adept at gathering and gaining knowledge from coaches, staff and his playing partners, but at 6-0, 205, Thornhill’s stature is not diminutive.

• Speed: 4.42-40
• Highest Vertical (44″) at the Combine
• Tied for Second in the Broad Jump (11’9″)

Juan Thornhill suffered a nagging injury and bypassed running a third 40 and dropped other drills at the combine. He did not participate in metric measurements on his Pro Day. He looked very smooth and fluid in the on-the-field work.

Juan Thornhill had the speed to succeed at a top level in the NFL. His burst speed was also good but not as prolific. As far as ball hawk? Thornhill was tops among all measured DB’s according to Rogue Analytics.

The fact that he was rated as a 3rd round prospect by most teams is apparently how the Chiefs were able to jump in front of the other suitors and selected him earlier. Excellent stuff. Rogue Analytics measured Thornhill’s Master Matrix as a top performer among all players at the combine. This sold me on Thornhill. He is an Athlete. If you take a look at the 2020 draft, Willie Gay, Jr. stands out for exactly the same reason.

What all the history and measurements told me was that Thornhill had a strong set of skills for the safety and CB roles on any football team. His instinctive play and fluidity, including his twitchiness and being able to adjust to the ball in flight, told me that he was a top talent. I had to make an assumption regarding what I felt was cruially important and that is his Short Area Quickness. Everything that I could see on game film indicated this was not a weakness.

What I saw and observed at the collegiate level was then demonstrated in the NFL. His most obvious skill is in football intellect — his ability to diagnos the ball in play. His career is replete with being a Ball Hawk. If he doesn’t have the closing burst you want to see, especially in the center field role, his ability to make plays at the point of catch tells me that he has ball skill. He adjusts to plays and throws on the fly, finds the ball in the air and adjusts to get to the PoC. From there? He is always driving to get the ball or the ball carrier and is a willing tackler.

One thing is certain: Thornhill possesses the versatility to play Safety or CB and that is why his immediate fit to the Spagnuolo defense was of great import. Since Thornhill can play FS, SS and CB, his ability to make himself a niche occurred on his path to a Starting role and he fulfilled this with great acumen.

How Falling in Love with Pro Football Make’s Thornhill a Player who found True Love

–Lord Byron-esque’s Don Juan

(Perhaps it’s me that has a player crush — Juan Thornhill).

What I thought about him in the 2019 season was just this: we’d found a player who could fit three roles as a defender and did so during the course of the season. Thornhill was on my draft list but later than the Chiefs ultimately selected him. I will note that the players I targeted were gone in round 1. He was one of 2 safeties taken in round 2.

Before the draft, the Chiefs Area Scout Dave Hinson, viewed Thornhill, not as other observers did, but a player whose versatility would lend itself to the Chiefs new defense. He discounted the critique of closing burst and Thornhill gave the lie to that published weakness. What Thornhill would do for Spagnuolo was to provide a player who would become a true safety who can cover and lock down the deep part of the field or… play up on the strong role. It would be true that Juan would have to add to his repertory for the center-field deep play but his football intelligence provided the means by which he added the skill. What is much more difficult: finding a true free safety to be a deep center-fielder is a challenge (Safeties who can cover are often turned into corners).

The basic observation and truth about Juan Thornhill was that he is one of those rare free safeties who could play deep center-field, quick to react to the ball and close. This was exactly opposite of the view of the national observers in general. Paired with Tyrann Mathieu, Juan had all the talent that was needed to be the “Two’s Compliment” and he proved this in his first season in the NFL.

Besides the player match-up, Thornhill had a perfect pair of coaches to work with: CB Coach Sam Madison and DB coach Dave Merritt who are both great fundamentals teachers for those roles. This was sort of Castaneda-ish in it’s own magic because they were working on the framework of new DC Steve Spagnuolo. There was a lot of individual One-on-One work with Thornhill who took to “it” like a duck to water. Here’s the player review by Ryan Tracy of Rogue Analytics:

Where Juan Thornhill was drafted, it appeared to me that his availability to the Chiefs occurred because he played for a school in the ACC and not the Big 10 or SEC. Getting Thornhill closed off a weakness in the secondary giving the Chiefs a top level Safety group to which they just added a former Chiefs UDFA from Florida Atlantic: Andrew Soroh. Soroh didn’t make the roster in 2019, but played in the XFL and was brought back to the player mix to challenge for a role in 2020.

2020 – Thornhill – A player with Heart

Thornhill played in all 16 regular season games with 55 tackles, 5 PD’s, 3 INT’s — one of the INT’s was a pick six. I look forward to his return and to his developed play for 2020 as much as I do any other player in the secondary.

This upcoming season is going to be special for the Chiefs team and fans. Keep a close eye on Thornhill. He has the talent and athleticism to be a great player for the Chiefs at Free Safety. It’s going to be fun for Chiefs fans to watch and the Chiefs safety group is very strong due to the addition of Juan Thornhill in 2019. Juan Thornhill plays the game with “Heart” and will always be a thorn in an opponent’s heel.

David Bell – ArrowheadOne

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