KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs started planning for the eventual lack of cornerback L’Jarius Sneed two years in the past once they picked Trent McDuffie within the first spherical and chosen three extra cornerbacks earlier than the 2022 draft was over.
Their plan for all times with out Sneed was obvious then, however stays to be seen how effectively they executed it. They may come to remorse buying and selling Sneed to the Tennessee Titans for a few draft picks.
For now, they acquired one thing in return versus dropping Sneed as a free agent and getting nothing as he walked out the door. The return wasn’t as substantial as what the Chiefs acquired two years in the past once they traded Tyreek Hill.
However in addition to the Chiefs have drafted just lately, it is not unreasonable to count on they’ll get at the least one productive participant from what they acquired from the Titans, a seventh-round choose this 12 months and a third-rounder subsequent season.
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Cornerback is now McDuffie’s area, together with the opposite gamers they drafted two years in the past. McDuffie, an All-Professional choice final season, seems to be prepared to just accept the duties the Chiefs handed to Sneed final season.
The others are Joshua Williams, Jaylen Watson and Nazeeh Johnson. Williams, a fourth-round choose in 2022, and Watson, a seventh-rounder that 12 months, have already delivered for the Chiefs. Every performed a substantial quantity of snaps the previous two seasons, with Williams specifically late final season trying like he was able to be a starter.
Johnson missed all of final season after tearing his ACL throughout coaching camp however could possibly be the fourth cornerback this 12 months. The Chiefs even have Chamarri Conner, a fourth-round choose final season who performed some as a slot cornerback as a rookie, and a few developmental corners like Nic Jones, a seventh-round choose in 2023.
There’ll doubtless be instances the Chiefs want they hadn’t traded Sneed, who was as regular from all the way down to down as any cornerback within the league. He was typically requested to cowl the opponent’s high huge receiver — on at the least 65% of the snaps a league-high seven instances in the course of the common season, in accordance with NFL Subsequent Gen Stats — and he delivered in addition to the Chiefs might have hoped.
He additionally gave them some large performs, none extra notable than the fumble he compelled towards the Ravens’ Zay Flowers on this previous season’s AFC Championship Sport.
In 57 regular-season video games, Sneed has 10 interceptions and 40 passes defended. He has one interception and 7 passes defended in 13 postseason video games.
However the Chiefs, who’re paying Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones contracts at or close to the highest of their positional markets, had been in no place to afford one other one.
They noticed this coming way back to two years in the past.
