BEREA — Juan Thornhill wants to be “that guy.”
It’s part of the reason why the new Browns safety is now wearing No. 1 with his new team, after sporting No. 22 his first four seasons in Kansas City.
No. 1 seemed nice,” Thornhill said on Wednesday following the Browns’ second day of OTAs. “There’s a nice catch to it, like the chosen Juan. The Juan and only. So, yeah, that’s why I picked No. 1. And it also carries you in a different way. Like you have to carry yourself when you’re No. 1, because everybody feels like you’re that guy.
“When you’re No. 1, you just feel like you got to look nice, you got to play better. I like that feeling.”
And Thornhill wants to spread that feeling around.
He’s already laying the groundwork to become the team’s new king of positivity, wasting no time after he got to Cleveland — something you already know if you follow him on Twitter.
“If you aren’t all the way In with us this year then (peace sign emoji) #DawgPound,” read one tweet on May 16.
He followed that message up with two more “If y’all can’t tell I’m tired of the negativity and I’ve only been here for 3 weeks. We will Win this year (red one hundred emoji).” And then, “And I don’t care about what happened any year before I got here! New Era !!”
Over the last few weeks, Thornhill has spent time not only getting to know his new teammates and a new defense, but speaking these kind of high expectations about the team into existence.
“Listen, they say if you speak negative, negative things will happen,” Thornhill said. “That’s what I truly believe. So if you sit here and speak positive, those positive things will happen. If you say you’re going to win and you step on that field believing you’re going to win, more than likely you’re going to win. I mean, you’re going to play your hardest to get there. So I’m definitely that type of guy that wants to be positive and bring everyone to the room and then just enjoy everything together.”
The other part of it though, is trying to bring a championship pedigree to Cleveland.
Thornhill has won two Super Bowls with the Chiefs in his four-year career, with the team going to three total during his tenure. Part of the reason he wanted to come to Cleveland in free agency, he said, is to add some of that experience to the locker room.
He also relishes the chance to be a bit of an underdog.
“Kansas City, everybody put them up there, number one, they think they’re going to win every year,” he said. “But me coming here, I feel like I can add something to the team and bring something to the team to get us to that top level.”
Those kind of aspirations typically start with the product on the field, something Thornhill is unsurprisingly optimistic about. The Browns defense has been revamped, with 13 new players and a new, attack-minded coordinator in Jim Schwartz.
Thornhill has enjoyed learning Schwartz’s system so far, not being locked in to free or strong safety while playing alongside Grant Delpit. So far, the duo seems to have a natural chemistry.
“It’s definitely coming together,” Thornhill said. “We’re starting to figure each other out a little bit more because I saw that a little bit today. Us not having to really speak too much to each other and we just know what each other’s going to do.”
But the optimism he hopes to spread is also for those outside of the Browns locker room.
Thornhill sees a lot of similarities between Cleveland fans and Kansas City fans, noting how passionate both are about their teams. But, he said, part of the reason for his tweets is raising the expectations of Cleveland fans to be near that same level of a Chiefs team that has had a lot of recent Super Bowl success.
“In Kansas City, like, those fans there, I would not say (they’re) too cocky,” Thornhill said. “Like they were just like, ‘We’re going to win this week.’ And the players can feel that. When you walk into the stadium, you know that you’re going to win and everyone is behind you.
“You don’t want to be walking around with fans saying, ‘I don’t know if you’re going to win or not. I hope we win this year.’ We don’t want to see that as a team. We want them guys to be behind us, pushing us every day, and like, we’re going to win. And once you have your fans backing you up, they make us want to play harder for you, as fans.”
And maybe the No. 1 jersey really is meant for Thornhill.
On top of wanting to be the one — or the Juan — he really only has one thing on his mind when it comes to making these positive expectations a reality.
“They brought me here to win, so they brought in a great guy to help go get the football, get turnovers, get the ball back to Deshaun (Watson) and the offense,” Thornhill said. “That’s what they brought me here for, just to lock up any receiver that I’m going against.
