Kansas City Chiefs: Final rookie report card for 2020 season

For an undrafted rookie out of a smaller school, Tershawn Wharton sure played a fairly big role on the Chiefs’ defense. He might not have put up stellar numbers or ended the season as a household name, but make no mistake, Wharton was terrific given his “worth” coming out of college.

Wharton finished the season with 27 tackles (four for loss), four quarterback hits, and two sacks while also recovering a fumble. No one expected this kind of production from Wharton as a rookie, especially considering that he went undrafted and played his college ball at Missouri S&T. The Chiefs had faith that he’d be a decent player and they were right.

Wharton must definitely deserves this A- grade. Here’s to hoping he continues to play this well in the coming years.

This one pains me, it really does. I like Tommy Townsend and was really excited about the Chiefs having a new punter. I was even more excited when Townsend completed a pass on fourth down earlier on in the regular season.

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But, unfortunately, that was about where the fun stopped with Townsend. Not only did his production decline as the regular season continued, but his performance in Super Bowl LV was atrocious and could be reason enough for Kansas City to once again find a new punter.

Townsend only punted once in the playoffs prior to Super Bowl LV but unfortunately for the Chiefs, he had to punt several times in the biggest game of the season and the moment was clearly too big for him. Two of Townsend’s punts were awful and gave the Buccaneers the ball already in Chiefs territory and with how badly the defense was playing that night, that was basically an automatic score for Tampa.

While the Super Bowl performance was terrible, Townsend did have bright spots during the season. I mentioned the fourth down completion in a win over the Jets, but he also won AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance against the Saints in Week 15. He doesn’t finish the season with a good grade, but it’s a passing grade.

What grades would you hand out to this season’s rookies?