The Kansas City Chiefs are dealing with a few injuries to start training camp at Missouri Western State University. Kadarius Toney and Tershawn Wharton headlined the injured list. However, the Chiefs did have the good fortune of seeing Isiah Pacheco and Trent McDuffie practicing with the team after they missed OTAs in June.
McDuffie faced high expectations as Kansas City’s top draft pick in 2022 and persevered through several injuries during his rock-solid rookie campaign last season. He will be considered a core piece of the Chiefs’ secondary in the coming season and was back on the field on Monday for practice.
McDuffie spoke to reporters after workouts about taking advantage of takeaways more next season as he and the rest of Kansas City’s defense strive for improvement in their effort to defend their newly won Super Bowl title.
“I think a big thing for us is just takeaways. We know we got guys who make plays, we can cover, we can play the zone, we can blitz the quarterback, but big thing for us is just getting that ball back,” McDuffie explained. “I know Spags [Steve Spagnuolo] talked a lot about attitude defense and 11 guys at the ball 24-7 I think that’s something that this defense is really going to hone in on, just making sure we don’t give up on any play.”
McDuffie finished his rookie season with 44 tackles and a sack but was disappointed by his lack of an interception on the 2022 stat sheet. He acknowledged missing a few chances to get his first professional pick and vowed to fix that deficiency in 2023.
“100% Yeah, I dropped a few last year,” said McDuffie, “so I definitely have to come back and make up for it this year.”
