KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs rookie cornerback Trent McDuffie was off to a great start in his rookie season before injuring his hamstring in week one against the Arizona Cardinals.
McDuffie sat out for six weeks before returning on Sunday Night Football in week nine against the Tennessee Titans.
He picked up right where he left off, playing 24 coverage snaps against the Titans.
Titans quarterback Malik Willis targeted McDuffie only twice, but McDuffie didn't allow any receptions at all in that game.
McDuffie said Wednesday, the hardest part about his recovery was being patient in his return.
"Going out the first game is always pretty frustrating and pretty disheartening because you know, you have all these goals and you have this plan that you set in place and it doesn't go that way," McDuffie said. "But I was able to kind of just take a step back, work really well with the trainers, work really well with the coaches and kind of set this system where it was almost like I was going to play every week but then just sit out the game."
Each week of recovery, McDuffie said he treated it as though he'd play that week.
"I just kind of kept this system of — let's just keep this going so that when I did come back, it wasn't anything short of just what I was already doing," he said. "So just creating a system and just being able to stick to that and staying disciplined were the biggest things for me to be able to come back to where I am now."
Now it's on to the Jacksonville Jaguars and McDuffie said he's feeling back to 100%.
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