Kansas City Chiefs rookie CB L’Jarius Sneed was designated to return from injured reserve on November 4th. While he’s been cleared to return to practice, he hasn’t yet been activated from injured reserve and the team still has until Wednesday, November 25th to do so. That’s why you haven’t seen the rookie corner appearing on any injury reports so far this week.
When speaking to the media on Thursday, Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was tentative when putting a timeline on the return of his talented rookie. The last thing they want to do is rush Sneed back before he is ready to return.
“Yeah, look, I mean we’re talking one day,” Spagnuolo said. “We had him in some walkthroughs on Tuesday, yesterday morning’s walkthrough. I don’t know what the reps were. It’s a little hard now. I’m anxious and excited to get him out there again today and then tomorrow on Friday when we get a little speed against him. We’ll tread lightly, you know. It has been a while, he’s got to get oiled up. I’d like to think that we can get him right to where he was playing earlier in the season. That probably is not realistic so, we’ll take it one step at a time.”
Sneed had the NFL lead in interceptions through the first two weeks of the season before suffering a collarbone injury in Week 3 against the Baltimore Ravens. While Spagnuolo doesn’t believe it’s realistic to expect him to pick up where he left off, cornerbacks coach Sam Madison is hopeful that the young corner can get back to that level of play.
“The way that he started off at the beginning of the season, I’m trying to see if he can pick up right where he left off,” Madison said. “He was playing at a high level. Just from his maturity since he stepped into the building, you can really see it on a daily basis with this kid. I’m just really happy to see how he worked his way through. Normally, when you get young guys in this situation that get an injury, they will fall into a tank. Every single day, this kid came in with a smile on his face, he was talking football, he was encouraged, he didn’t have a slump, and he didn’t get into a slump. Just happy to see him running around out there. He did a lot of conditioning throughout the course that he was down. Out there on the scout team, he was moving around extremely well.”
The work ethic and attitude that Sneed has shown in his recovery could allow him to get back out on the field as early as Week 11. There’s little question that the Chiefs could use his speed on “Sunday Night Football” to combat the speed of Raiders receivers Henry Ruggs III and Nelson Agholor. Ultimately, the decision rests in the hands of Andy Reid and Steve Spagnuolo. They’ll make their determination based on what they’ve seen in the practice week.
“It’s just going to be a situation where Coach Reid makes a decision if he’s going to be up or going to be down and Coach Spags (Steve Spagnuolo) feeling comfortable enough to implement him into the defense,” Madison said. “Just trying to work his way back in so he doesn’t have any setbacks.”
[listicle id=80721]