National Football League

Chiefs counting on talented rookie defensive backs in Super Bowl

Published Feb. 8, 2023 1:34 p.m. ET

PHOENIX — A team playing in its third Super Bowl in four years would presumably be loaded with experienced veterans, but this year's Chiefs have gotten here with remarkable contributions from a deep class of rookies, especially on defense.

Kansas City and Philadelphia face off Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App) as two teams incredibly similar in some aspects. They reached the same record as their conference's top seed and scored the exact same number of points along the way. But the Eagles ranked last in the NFL in rookie snaps, while the Chiefs have leaned heavily on their rookies, who logged 3,721 snaps, seventh-most in the NFL and four times many as Philadelphia's first-year players.

The largest concentration is in the defensive secondary, a crucial position against a top-tier quarterback. Corner Trent McDuffie was Kansas City's top draft pick in the first round, but the Chiefs have also gotten consistent play from seventh-round corner Jaylen Watson, fourth-round nickel Joshua Williams and second-round safety Bryan Cook, who all had at least 33 tackles during the regular season.

"They're willing guys to try things," coach Andy Reid said Tuesday of their prominent roles. "It's one thing when you have a player that you're coaching and he tries it in practice, but he's not willing to try it in a game. These guys are very gifted athletes, very talented to start with. What you're just trying to do as a coach is give them one more thing to make them greater than they are, or potentially greater.

"These kids have been willing to listen to David [Merritt] and Donald [D'Alesio] and what they're teaching, Spags [Steve Spagnuolo], learning his scheme. So my hat goes off to them. They're great kids, they work hard, they want to be good. Every week they've gotten a little bit better, which is a tribute to their work ethic."

In K.C.'s AFC Championship Game win against Cincinnati, rookie defensive backs were everywhere — the Chiefs were credited with seven passes defensed (meaning knocked down incomplete), and six of them came from rookies, plus an interception by Watson. Their wisdom and poise now is a function of preparation and hard work six months ago.

"We did a good job before the season started of just coming together, holding each other accountable, studying a lot," McDuffie said. "So going into the season, it was like, 'We're going to make our bumps, we're going to have our mistakes, but at the end of the day, we're going to come back, we're going to learn from it, and we're going to continue to boost each other up.' Yeah, we know we're rookies, we know we're new to this, but at the end of the day, our confidence and just knowing the defense takes over."

For all that confidence, there is also a keen awareness of the challenge ahead of them Sunday. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts had the fourth-highest passer rating in the league, throwing for 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns, with two prolific receivers in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

"We know Jalen Hurts is confident in his receivers," McDuffie said Tuesday. "He does a good job of just getting the ball out there. They take their deep shots. That's something that, as rookies, we have to be able to play. We know A.J. Brown has really good hands. DeVonta is a speedster. They've got Quez Watkins, a speedster. Limiting those deep shots is going to be huge for us."

Chiefs veterans took notice of the rookies early on, even in training camp. Safety Juan Thornhill remembers seeing how they held rookie meetings as a group to go over scheme and understand terminology and reads, something that paid off in practice and gave coaches more confidence to play them early and often. Thornhill won a Super Bowl his rookie year, and he's still surprised by how prepared this group of players has been.

"I don't know how they got it, but these guys stepped in with so much confidence," Thornhill said. "I've never seen a group of guys that stepped in just willing to make plays whenever they're thrown in the game. Confidence is something that you can't build. It's just in you. They took pride in learning the playbook. They didn't leave anybody behind. They wanted to make sure everybody knew what they were doing."

The impact from Chiefs rookies is all over the field: Running back Isiah Pacheco, a seventh-round pick, is their leading rusher; first-round pick George Karlaftis is second on the team with six sacks; and the two leading tacklers on special teams are rookies in linebacker Jack Cochrane and safety Nazeeh Johnson.

The young secondary showed precocious promise from early on in the year. In Week 2, in a divisional showdown with the Chargers, the game was tied in the fourth quarter and Los Angeles was at the goal line for a potential go-ahead score when Watson intercepted a pass from Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert and took it 99 yards for a touchdown. Now the rookies will be counted on in the biggest game of all, and their teammates have confidence they'll be able to handle it.

"I think you saw in training camp how talented they were," quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. "Trent, obviously, was like a veteran the day he stepped on the football field, and I knew he was going to be a great player. But then you look at Joshua Williams and Jaylen Watson and Cook, and they have the talent, the physical gifts, but you knew it was going to take some refining. I think Coach Merritt did a great job of helping teach them, and other veteran guys in the building helped teach them.

"They've stepped up huge for us, and we need one more big game from them."

Greg Auman is FOX Sports’ NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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