The kids are all right; How McDuffie, Watson, Williams and Cook helped the Chiefs get to the Super Bowl

The Chiefs' rookie secondary class was asked to carry an unreasonable burden in the AFC Championship... and then did exactly that.

Cornerbacks and safeties are supposed to struggle their first season in the NFL. That’s just the way it works.

The same can be said for most positions, of course. However, cornerbacks have one of the steepest hills to climb making the jump from basically never covering NFL talent to doing it every single week (also, have you SEEN the wide receiver talent in the league lately?). Safeties have to deal with the same issue in terms of how fast they need to react, along with freakish tight ends. And both positions deal with more complicated looks from NFL defensive coordinators along with increased play speed in which a split-second hesitation means failure.

In other words, it’s hard.

Which is why what Chiefs’ rookies Trent McDuffie, Jaylen Watson, Joshua Williams and Bryan Cook did in the AFC Championship is so impressive.

When L’Jarius Sneed went down with a concussion, as well as linebacker Willie Gay Jr., it altered the course of the Chiefs’ defensive gameplan. Sneed’s injury meant that Steve Spagnuolo would have three rookies in coverage against the best WR trio in the NFL. Gay’s injury meant that do-everything safety Justin Reid would play more of a hybrid LB/S role, with Cook coming in to play safety much more frequently.

Against such a gifted offense, having rookies as 2/3 of your back end would seem like a recipe for disaster. But this really isn’t an ordinary rookie class, and every one of these the youngsters contributed in a big way to the Chiefs getting another shot at the Lombardi Trophy. From McDuffie on down, each of them was asked to do more than one would expect Sunday and answered the call.

Let’s talk about each of the Chiefs’ rookie secondary defenders and how they helped Kansas City conquer the Bengals.

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