March 23, 2024, 8:00 p.m. ET
The NFL champion organization fulfills a plan it outlined some time ago
KANSAS CITY, Missouri. — Los Kansas City Chiefs They began to plan for the eventual loss of the cornerback L’Jarius Sneed two years ago when they elected Trent McDuffie in the first round and selected three more cornerbacks before the 2022 draft ended.
Their plan for life without Sneed was evident then, but it remains to be seen how well they executed it. They might regret trading Sneed later in the year. Tennessee Titans for a couple of draft picks.
For now, they received something in return instead of losing L’Jarius Sneed as a free agent and receive nothing. The return was not as substantial as what the Chiefs two years ago when they traded Tyreek Hill.
L’Jarius Sneed leaves Chiefs and will play for Titans starting in 2024. Jamie Squire/Getty Images
But, just as the Chiefs have drafted recently, it’s not unreasonable to expect them to get at least one productive player from what they received from the Titansa seventh-round pick this year and a third-round pick next season.
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The position is now the domain of Trent McDuffie, along with the other players they recruited two years ago. McDuffie, an All-Pro selection last season, appears ready to accept the responsibilities that the Chiefs They gave Sneed last season.
The others are Joshua Williams, Jaylen Watson y Nazeeh Johnson. Williams, a fourth-round pick in 2022, and Watson, a seventh-round pick that year, have already met the Chiefs. Each played a considerable amount of snaps over the past two years, and Williams in particular late last season looked ready to be a starter.
Johnson missed all of last season after tearing his ACL during training camp, but could be the fourth cornerback this year. The Chiefs they also have Chamarri Connera fourth-round pick last season who played slot cornerback as a rookie, and some developmental cornerbacks like Nic Jones, a seventh-round pick in 2023.
There will probably be times when Chiefs They wish they hadn’t traded Sneed, who was as stable as any cornerback in the league. He was often asked to cover the opponent’s best wide receiver (on at least 65% of plays, seven times the most in the league, during the regular season, according to NFL Next Gen Stats) and he did it as well as the Chiefs they could have waited.
He also gave them some big plays, none more notable than the fumble he forced against Zay Flowers of the Ravens in last season’s AFC Championship Game.
In 57 regular season games, Sneed has 10 interceptions and 40 passes defended. He has one interception and seven passes defended in 13 postseason games.
But the Chiefs, who are paying contracts to Patrick Mahomes y Chris Jones at or near the top of their positional markets, they were not in a position to pay another.
They saw it coming two years ago.
2024-03-24 01:00:00
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