The Kansas City Chiefs kicked off training camp today on July 21, but just before that, KC beat reporters/media insiders Matt Derrick (Chiefs Digest) and Nick Jacobs (KSHB41) recorded the latest edition of their “41 is the Mic” podcast the night prior.
On it, Derrick and Jacobs took an early stab at predicting the 53-man roster, and the exercise uncovered an unexpected revelation at wide receiver. Early OTAs standout and popular pick for 2025 “training camp darling,” Tyquan Thornton, has not been as impressive as some have made it seem. At least, in the eyes of Jacobs.
When listing his wide receiver picks for the 53-man roster and the practice squad, Jacobs totally left Thornton off both and didn’t even mention his name at first. Then, after Derrick followed up with his own Chiefs WR projections, mentioning Thornton as a player to watch, Jacobs clarified why he left the speedy big-play threat out of his prediction altogether.
“For people that are wondering why I don’t have Thornton on there,” Jacobs interjected. “He just never put consistent days together whenever we were at practice. [Or] consistent weeks, let’s put it that way.”
“So, for a guy to really kind of pique my interest, they got to continually stack days together up at training camp like I talk about year after year on this podcast,” the veteran media member explained. “They got to be able to put multiple days together, especially in shoulder pads, before I start to really kind of think they’re a contender [to make the roster].”
Wow, talk about a wet blanket completely extinguishing the wideout with blazing speed that many had earmarked for a breakout summer. Of course, Jacobs never said Thornton can’t make the 53; he just said he hasn’t done enough to enter that conversation yet.
KC Reporter Predicts 4 Potential ‘Training Camp Darlings’ Including WR Tyquan Thornton
Ironically, on July 17, A-to-Z Sports Kansas City reporter Charles Goldman provided a perfect example of the hype that Thornton has entering Chiefs training camp.
During a mailbag article, Goldman was asked to predict the next “training camp darling,” and he narrowed it down to four candidates. One of them was Thornton, although he was not the final selection.
“I genuinely think that Nikko Remigio took a bit of that shine from Justyn Ross during training camp last year, and frankly, took it one step further by actually playing meaningful and impactful snaps for Kansas City last year,” Goldman began, being that the question involved Ross being waived.
“If it’s not Remigio again this year, I’ve narrowed the list down to four players: Tyquan Thornton, Elijhah Badger, Jake Briningstool, and Robert Tonyan,” he continued. “Any of those four players legitimately have a path to earn the training camp darling moniker and land on the practice squad. I could even see a path to the 53-man roster for a couple of them.”
Goldman eventually settled on the rookie tight end, Briningstool, as his prediction for 2025 training camp darling, but he did note that “Thornton already has the quarterback’s and [special teams coordinator] Dave Toub’s stamp of approval.”
So, clearly, there are differing opinions on Thornton within the KC media already.
Thornton began learning the punt coverage gunner position at minicamp, which can only help his chances of making the roster. Both the Ross and Rashee Rice news won’t hurt either, as the wide receiver ranks have started to get thinner already.
Both Derrick & Jacobs Predict Nikko Remigio Will Make 53-Man Roster at WR
Circling back to the “41 is the Mic” podcast, Derrick and Jacobs’ wide receiver projections were actually pretty straightforward aside from the potential Thornton slight.
Obviously, both had Rice, Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, Jalen Royals and JuJu Smith-Schuster making the roster. And it’s safe to say that it’d be pretty shocking if any of these five players were cut.
Rice could be suspended to start the year, though, so Jacobs named Remigio as his WR6 and Skyy Moore or Jason Brownlee as a possible veteran WR7 if they feel they need one without Rice.
On the flip side, Derrick confirmed that he has the same six Chiefs wide receivers making the roster as Jacobs, including Rice and Remigio. If Rice is suspended, Derrick included Thornton, along with Moore and Brownlee, as the most likely candidates to replace him on the initial 53.
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