The Kansas City Chiefs’ defense struggled for much of the first half of the season without the team’s first pick of 2022, quarterback Trent McDuffie.
It was definitely worth the wait. Yes! After taking an expansive, patient (and smart) approach to McDuffie’s recovery, he’s back and better than anyone, given his limited game count.
In this review, we take a closer look at some of the 22-year-old defensive back’s most notable players.
Movie analysis
Those who follow football closely will say that there is no tougher position in the NFL today than fullback. The wide receivers, quarterbacks, and offensive patterns that players have to use from time to time present undeniable challenges.
One of its most common forms is a radical and profound transformation. It takes innate patience with thousands of reps to have any chance of being a good defender in this situation. The receivers are very big and fast, and only a few quarterbacks can throw almost unguarded.
McDuffie turned out to be the exception rather than the rule as he ticked off a lot of things a defensive coordinator would like to see besides length and overall size. He shows the foot speed needed to compete, and the intuition that made him such an interesting watch in college movies continues to shine through.
Quite often when these defenders run down the pitch with the ball in the air, they lose focus and panic, resulting in a penalty or conceding the ball due to poor ball skills. McDuffie revealed that more often than not he doesn’t catch those explosives or use acceptable tactics.
That’s not to say the rising young star won’t forego drama here and there;
McDuffie isn’t necessarily doing anything wrong in the game above.
He’s in a good position, grabs the receiver in his back pocket as they go up and looks up at the sky to see the trajectory of the soccer ball. Unfortunately, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence and wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr. just struck up an unlikely connection, and that brings us back to the main point of the discussion. In the National Football League, this cornerback is not easy.
Not only is McDuffie known for his ability to hold receivers tight while navigating routes, but he also uses his natural gifts to maintain excellent position in zone coverage patterns. Even when the offense is grouped together to show zone coverage, McDuffie often does a great job of making every possible throw difficult for the quarterback.
There are plenty of quarterbacks in the NFL who are athletically quick enough to close windows thrown out of the zone. Very few instinctively know where to position their body to give them (and their team) a chance to stop. McDuffie is clearly one of them, much like his security chief Tyrone Mathieu.
If you weren’t already excited enough, it pays off even more as McDuffie is an explosive presence as a tackle near the line of scrimmage. Some reviewers have been told he can play it safe as well, and I’m sure he can.
If there’s one thing to pick right now based on the Jacksonville rivalry movie, it’s the combined secondary. Late in the game, the Jaguar receiver took a small step forward, as seen in the following clip:
The tight ends in this group – McDuffie, teammate Joshua Williams and veteran L’Jarius Snead – took their time adjusting to the move, and it created an opportunity for the offense to open up a target receiver in the spring. .
As this team takes to the field in the coming weeks, other offensive coordinators will test this unity by incorporating different moves into team formations. Especially given how young the group is, he can take advantage of an opposing offense that otherwise looks like a very fast secondary.
Last row:
The sample size remains quite small, and McDuffie and the Chiefs defense will soon face some of their biggest challenges.
Next Sunday night, the Los Angeles Chargers, led by solid quarterback Justin Herbert, will face this year’s top pure passer, McDuffie. The Chargers could also recover Mike Williams after a receiver injury. A player whose size can cause problems and who has recently dominated clashes against Chiefs full-backs. In a few weeks, the Cincinnati Bengals will be armed with the best Raiders in all of football.
The fact remains that McDuffie, whatever the competition, displays all the qualities necessary to become an elite level player very quickly. Needless to say, I won’t go back on my April prediction that McDuffie will one day be the Chiefs’ best bowler.
Injuries could have prevented that this year, but before that the bigger teams had to score.