5 Chiefs players who need a significant boost in playing time
By Matt Conner
Chamarri Conner, DB
Of all of the "give him more playing time" entries we have here, Chamarri Conner is the least demanding, but it doesn't mean it's not important—especially for the long-term.
This offseason, the Chiefs have some major decisions to make with a number of significant contributors scheduled to hit free agency for the first time. Those players are going to want to leverage their Super Bowl experience and proven production into the payday they've dreamed about for years. After all, this is the one chance that most of these Chiefs will get to build true generational wealth.
The list of potential free agents is paralyzing on the defensive side alone: Chris Jones, Drue Tranquill, Willie Gay Jr., L'Jarius Sneed, Mike Edwards, Turk Wharton, Derrick Nnadi, Mike Danna and more.
Without getting into the weeds on the full salary cap or the rest of the team's financial plans, one major sign-or-save decision rests on Sneed, who has been an underrated chess piece for Steve Spagnuolo for years and could earn his first Pro Bowl nod this season. In a contract year, he's going to grab the bag this offseason as most teams would love his blend of youth, experience, and versatility.
Losing Sneed would be a big blow to the Chiefs' defense, but just how devastating it would be depends on the readiness of Chamarri Conner to potentially step in. It's possible Conner becomes Mike Edwards' replacement as the team's third safety behind Justin Reid and Bryan Cook and the team moves forward that way. However, Conner's skill set and versatility were comparable to Sneed's coming out of Virginia Tech and the savings could be worth chasing in that direction instead.
Conner has only played 58 snaps on defense in the first half of the season so far, so there's nothing to learn from such a small sample size. But the Chiefs might want to squeeze more from him this season to at least get a more accurate projection of what he might turn into if given more responsibility. It could be the difference of millions and millions of dollars in cap decisions.