After the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory in February, there wasn’t much doubt that changing the starting safeties had a big affect on the team’s fortunes.
Last spring’s acquisitions of Tyrann Mathieu from the Houston Texans and Juan Thornhill from the NFL Draft revitalized a position group that had been underperforming ever since Eric Berry was injured in Week 1 of the 2017 season.
From the time he was signed to the team, there was never much question of Mathieu’s ability. But as a second-round rookie, it was reasonable to worry whether Thornhill could make an impact.