Tyquan Thornton — Week 1: One Deep Target, Incomplete

Seven to seven, 12 42 left in the second quarter, second and one at the Kansas City 38. Patrick Mahomes took the shot, deep left to Tyquan Thornton, 36 yards in the air, incomplete. −0.6 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −2.9 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. Kenneth Walker converted the third and one on the next snap.

The line: one target, no catches, no yards. It was one of three throws the play-by-play labels deep on the night, and none was caught — the others were a first-quarter throw credited to no receiver and the interception intended for Xavier Worthy in the third quarter. The target came before halftime; nothing came after.

The split: Worthy six targets, Walker six, Travis Kelce five, Rashee Rice two, Emmett Johnson two, and one each to Thornton, Cyrus Allen, Jake Briningstool and Noah Gray. 27 throws on the night against 31 designed runs, and the Chiefs ran for 224 yards.

Back in June the preview leaned watchlist on Thornton — the 90-ninth receiver at pick two 37, a real per-game beat on thin volume, with the 23-yards-a-catch efficiency as the part that regresses and Rice's return crowding the picture — and named the pecking order once Rice was back as the thing to watch. Monday: one target, behind Worthy, Walker, Kelce, Rice and Johnson, and it was the deep shot the preview said is the role. One game does not settle a pecking order, and a night with 27 throws is a small sample of one. The Chiefs are home to the Colts on Sunday night, the twentieth.

_Data via nflverse._