This Chiefs rookie shined at one position. Back from injury, he’s thriving at another
Before his first NFL game, as his mind wandered with how it all might unfold, Chiefs rookie cornerback L’Jarius Sneed took a moment at home to enact his own form of preparation. It’s served him well in the past, a method that requires no coaching, no film or even a single teammate around.
He meditated.
The practice puts his mind at ease, and as an NFL rookie, that’s often been the objective. Slow the chaos.
“Meditation, it helped me a lot with my game,” Sneed said. “It takes a lot off my mind.”
Like this: After an injury put a promising first professional season on hold, Sneed turned to his meditation. It helped narrow his focus. Away from the bummer of it all. Toward a new role.
As Sneed neared his return from a fractured collarbone, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo approached him with an idea. Or more like a new job, really.
He wanted Sneed to shift from outside cornerback to the nickel, a move that sounds more natural that it’s proven to be for many. Sneed had never before practiced there with the Chiefs. Not during the season. Not in training camp.
But by the time Spagnuolo shared his intent, he discovered he had a head start.
Sneed was already studying for the move.
“I was trying to learn it before they even told me,” he said.
It was a numbers game, plain and simple. Sneed, a fourth-round choice from Louisiana Tech, opened the season as the Chiefs starter, though as a fill-in for the suspended Bashaud Breeland. He intercepted two passes in three starts before landing awkwardly on his shoulder, fracturing his collarbone in Baltimore.
Breeland returned in Sneed’s two-month absence. So, figuring his best chance to stay on the field might entail a position change, Sneed began studying the finer details of the nickel cornerback. On his own.
“The one thing about LJ is he’s got football ‘get-it,’” Spagnuolo said. “I mean he understands football. We knew that when we started working with him however many months ago it was, and we were just anxious to get him back after he performed pretty well. What we didn’t know is (whether he) could slide inside and get some things done. And right now I think it’s been pretty good.”
In fact, as good as Sneed was in his first three NFL games, Pro Football Focus thinks he’s coming off his best game yet in Tampa Bay.
Sneed play 32 defensive snaps against the pass-heavy Buccaneers, only one of them lined up on the outside, where he spent virtually all of his time in the first three weeks. He allowed two receptions for 10 yards. He’s still yet to give up a touchdown in coverage this season.
“Trying to get the best players on the field as much as we can,” Spagnuolo said. “That’s really it. And we’ve asked him to learn a new position that he really didn’t during training camp, and he’s doing a great job.”
He added, “He did not have a foundation of reps. We didn’t play him any nickel going back to training camp. I give him a lot of credit for knowing what to do or knowing as much as he did in the reps that he’s had. There is a learning curve. Whether you know it on the board and in the meeting room or not, there’s a learning curve when you go out there and it’s going really fast.”
The new spot requires more assignments. On the outside, Sneed approached his job as a man on an island. On the inside, there are more intricacies involved. He plays more zone. But he must still be able to match up man-to-man. He needs to be a bigger factor in the running game. He might even blitz on occasion.
Most of it’s completely new to him.
“It’s totally different, for me, sitting at home trying to read a book than actually going out there and doing it,” Sneed said. “For me, going out there and doing it, that’s how I learn faster — when I go through the process. I think as I go through the process, I get better day-by-day (and) never get comfortable with the spot. You always can learn.”