Can the Chiefs rely on young cornerbacks to fill in for Bashaud Breeland?

L’Jarius Sneed

Last, we have this year’s fourth-round pick, L’Jarius Sneed. Drafted out of Louisiana Tech, Sneed played his first three years at cornerback before switching to safety during his senior season. It was clear that he was best suited to play cornerback when comparing his performances at each position, and the Chiefs drafted him to play the outside cornerback role.

Sneed has the physical traits that Spagnuolo likes at the cornerback position. Standing at 6’0″ tall, 192 pounds, he is an explosive athlete with good balance and quick feet to fire in any direction. He’s aggressive both at the line of scrimmage and at the catch point. The former LA Tech cornerback collected 28 pass breakups and eight interceptions, displaying excellent ball skills.

His experience playing both safety and cornerback in college makes him an intriguing option to fill the role that Fuller played a season ago. However, Sneed has a ways to go when it comes to diagnosing routes and reacting quicker. Coming into the NFL, Sneed looked to be a high-quality developmental project who would contribute mostly on special teams during his rookie season. Asking him to play significant snaps during the first four weeks will likely bring several rookie mistakes and learning points.

"“Any guy that comes into this training camp… we’re looking for them to be able to help us down the road,” Madison said of Sneed, before being brutally honest regarding his learning curve. “L’Jarius, he’s picking up the lingo — is he picking it up as fast as we want him to? No, but he is working at it, and at this point, he’s feeling comfortable.”"

If Sneed does see playing time on defense early in the season, he will likely be playing along the boundary at the line of scrimmage, allowing him to play physical and rely more on his athleticism than the mental processing side of his game. Asking him to play a considerable amount of zone snaps could result in some struggles.