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Kansas City Chiefs safety Juan Thornhill is expected to be ready for the start of the 2020 NFL season, according to a report from NFL Network’s James Palmer.
Expectation is for #Cheifs S Juan Thornhill to be ready for the start of the season. When he gets going during training camp is still TBD. I’m told his ACL injury actually turned out to be in better shape than expected when the surgery actually happened. Good news.
— James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) February 25, 2020
The Chiefs selected Thornhill, 24, with the 63rd pick in last year’s NFL Draft, and he won the Chiefs’ starting safety position next to veteran Tyrann Mathieu and started all 16 games before tearing his ACL in the team’s final regular-season game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
In those 16 games, Thornhill registered 58 tackles (42 solo), five passes defensed, three interceptions and one touchdown.
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo confirmed the surgery went well in mid-January. Earlier in the month, Mathieu spoke highly of the rookie.
“I feel so bad for the kid, he was having a great season. Like I’ve said, we really leaned on him to make big plays in critical situations. We put him in tough situations, and he found a way to come through for us.”
The Chiefs missed Thornhill during the NFL playoffs but still managed to win their first Super Bowl championship in 50 seasons.
Going to be one hell of a story Just watch !! https://t.co/pMzDzfqjrr
— The_Juan_And_Only (@Juan_Thornhill) December 30, 2019