Kansas City Chiefs: Rookie report card for 2019 season

With the season over and the Kansas City Chiefs winning the Super Bowl (crazy right?), it is time to grade the 2019 rookies. To make life easier, the only ones graded are the draft class that made the 53 man roster.

The Kansas City Chiefs‘ 2019 rookie class saw significantly more play than most were expecting. That isn’t to say that all the rookies saw playing time, but certain ones saw some major snaps. The Chiefs headed into the 2019 season with six drafted rookies and all but one of them saw the field throughout the regular season.

Let’s check out the grade cards from all six members of the Chiefs’ 2019 draft class.

Mecole Hardman was drafted as an insurance policy due to potential issues with Tyreek Hill that were making headlines at the time of the draft. When those issues were cleared up, Hardman wasn’t expected to see a lot of play outside of Special Teams.

After all, Hardman had Hill, Sammy Watkins and Demarcus Robinson in front of him on the depth chart. In week one against the Jaguars, however, Hill suffered a collar bone injury and that propelled Hardman up the depth chart a little bit. He started five games, but appeared in all 19 games during his rookie campaign.

Hardman finished the regular season with 26 catches for 538 yards and six touchdowns. For those not good at math, that is an insane 20.7 yards per reception! That doesn’t even include his value on Special Teams where he had 871 total return yards and a touchdown. Not to mention that his kickoff return in the Divisional Round really helped jumpstart that comeback.

Hardman was named to both the Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro as a return man as a rookie.  Not bad for an insurance policy.

While Hardman’s impact as a rookie wasn’t as big as one would hope from a second-round selection, when he was on the field he was a solid contributor.

Out of all the 2019 rookies, Juan Thornhill probably made the most impact and most fans figured that would be the case from day one.

Safety was a position that the Chiefs desperately needed to reload on and they did so by signing Tyrann Mathieu, almost signing Earl Thomas before he signed a longer deal with the Ravens, and drafting Juan Thornhill with their second second-round pick.  As it turns out, it might have been the Chiefs best selection of the entire draft.

Much like the entire defense, Thornhill started off slowly as rookies will sometimes do. It makes it even tougher when everyone else around you is also learning a new defense. That being said, he did finish the year with three interceptions that included a pick-six and he only allowed 14 receptions.

Unfortunately, his season came to a halt before the playoffs when he tore his ACL in Week 17 against the Chargers, meaning he did not get to be a part of the Super Bowl run. He and Mathieu were becoming one of the premier safety duos in the NFL and the entire defense was finally reaching its potential.

Thornhill was also a dark horse candidate for Defensive Rookie of the Year and was a huge difference maker on the field in 2019. Why shouldn’t he deserve an A?