Kansas City Chiefs rookie CB L’Jarius Sneed is beginning to make a name for himself in league circles.
After flashing through the first two games of the season, Sneed spent nine weeks on injured reserve with a broken collarbone. All of the sudden, he comes back for Kansas City and he’s playing an entirely new position, filling in at nickel corner. As the season wrapped-up and the postseason began, Sneed really started to flash from that position too.
In the last four games, Sneed has produced at an elite level. He’s amassed 14 total tackles, three sacks, five tackles for loss, five QB hits, three passes defended and an interception. Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach revealed that he knew early on that they had a special player in Sneed.
“Well, I guess really it was early on, in the first few starts. I’ll tell you what, we got fortunate,” Veach told reporters following the AFC Championship Game. “I think, had they had one of these draft do-overs, you can make a case with L’Jarius (Sneed) being selected in the first round. So I guess we were maybe lucky, more lucky than smart with that one because in retrospect he shouldn’t have been there in the fourth round.”
It’s some combination of luck and smarts that the Chiefs were able to land Sneed in the fourth round. As a senior at Louisiana Tech, Sneed played out of position, sliding into the safety spot to help his team out. Veach got with the coaching staff and went back to look at his cornerback tape from 2017 and 2018 before making the decision to target him in the draft.
“But again, Steve (Spagnuolo) and his staff I mean, Steve has a great feel – I mean Dave Merritt and Sam Madison are phenomenal as well,” Veach said. “Steve has a really good eye and I remember talking to Steve during the draft process and going back and watching L’Jarius a couple of years ago when he played corner as opposed to safety his final year at LA Tech.”
Not only did Spagnuolo, Merritt and Madison help identify Sneed’s talent but they’ve helped develop him this season. They coached him up into a great player during a non-traditional offseason and helped him adapt to a midseason position change.
“The talent is there and that’s the cool thing about being general manager,” Veach continued. “You know if the talent is there, the coaches will get after it whether it be Coach (Andy) Reid and his staff or Coach (Eric) Bieniemy and his staff and we just got great coaches that find a way to put these players in positions to make plays and they certainly have done that with LJ and he’s been phenomenal all year.”
Sneed will be a big part of the future successes of this defense moving forward. In Super Bowl LV, he’ll have a chance to really make his talents known across the league.
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