Kansas City Chiefs: Stock Up, Stock Down after Week One vs Jaguars

Week One is in the books for the Kansas City Chiefs, and it may be the hardest week of the NFL season to assess. Winning teams are crowned as elite, losing teams are buried, and a season long worth of storylines are conjured up.

Here, we are going to try to avoid overreactions for the Kansas City Chiefs. Instead of making bold proclamations and crazy claims, we are going to determine the stock of players going forward as the season progresses.

Standout players will receive the Stock Up tag. Under performers will get slapped with the Stock Down label. We we also highlight a player or two who is on Stock Watch. Stock Watch will be for players who didn’t play good or bad enough to move their needle completely, but did do enough to have their stock trending one way or the other. This player will be one to keep your eye on in the coming weeks.

As a disclaimer here, someone who has their stock shifting isn’t a conclusion being made. Good or bad, it is just an analysis of recent performances. We are trying to not overreact here. There should be no cause for concern unless you find a player on Stock Down for multiple weeks.

We also won’t crown one player after one good game. With that being said, let’s get into it.

Stock Watch: Juan Thornhill

The name Juan Thornhill was all over during training camp. Everyone was raving about the first year safety making play after play during practice. Chiefs fans have yet to see that translate to the field, however.

Thornhill is interesting though. He made eight tackles week one against the Jaguars, five of which were solo. The Juan and Only wasn’t able to get his hands on any passes, but he did make his presence felt in the run game. That is a good sign of things to come.

The other interesting thing about Thornhill is that he started on Sunday. What makes that special is the fact defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is known for not starting rookie players. That means the confidence the team has in Thornhill is high.

Look for him to continue establishing himself. Hopefully we see him in the Stock Up section soon.