NFL: Kansas City Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed is the major defensive star going into Super Bowl LVIII

There are NFL stars who make their teammates better, but what the Chiefs’ opponents run into is L’Jarius Sneed, a star who does something even harder to find: he makes his opponents unimaginably worse.

Over the past four months, Sneed has emerged as arguably the best cornerback in the entire league. And more than Mahomes or even Kelce, he explains why Kansas City is back in the Super Bowl to take on the San Francisco 49ers. The Chiefs used to win in spite of their defence. Now they’re one win away from back-to-back titles because of it.

“We wouldn’t be nearly as effective a defence if we weren’t able to say, ‘L’Jarius, go over and cover that guy this week,’ says Steve Spagnuolo, the team’s defensive co-ordinator. “And it’s always been the top guy.”

Even when Kansas City’s offence went through an uncharacteristic rough patch this season, the team’s defence remained one of the best units in football. Every week, Spagnuolo made it Sneed’s job to completely suffocate the other team’s best wide receiver, whoever he may be. He’s the main reason why the Chiefs gave up the second-fewest points in the NFL — and have a chance at stifling the Niners’ top-three offence en route to a Lombardi Trophy.

Sneed wasn’t supposed to be the NFL’s next great shutdown corner. A wide receiver in high school, he was lightly recruited and wound up at Louisiana Tech, where the school’s coaches shifted him to cornerback and then to safety.

The Chiefs picked him in the fourth round of the 2020 draft and happened to disagree with Louisiana Tech’s assessment. They saw Sneed as a natural born cornerback. By the end of his rookie season, when Kansas City fell to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl, Sneed had cracked the team’s starting line-up. He has been a starter ever since.

In the years since then, he has emerged into one of the rare defensive backs who’s a silent killer. He doesn’t rack up interceptions or highlight-reel plays. Instead, he has an uncanny ability to vaporise opposing receivers’ statistics: He didn’t allow a single touchdown over the course of the entire regular season.

This year, Sneed has gone up against a who’s who of the NFL’s best receivers. Miami Dolphins dynamo Tyreek Hill led the NFL by averaging 112 receiving yards per game — and averaged just 62 per yards in two tilts against Sneed, including in Kansas City’s postseason win. Other superstars such as the Eagles’ A.J. Brown (8 receiving yards), the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson (28 yards) and the Bills’ Stefon Diggs (45 yards combined in two games) were all completely smothered, too.

The biggest question for the 49ers’ offence in the Super Bowl is whether leading receiver Brandon Aiyuk can avoid suffering the same fate.

“It makes the defence so much easier,” says fellow Chiefs corner Jaylen Watson. “You can just exile everyone’s No. 1 target.”

When Sneed was the primary defender this season, passers completed just 51% of their passes and averaged just 4.8 yards per attempt. That’s worse than the Carolina Panthers’ Bryce Young, who had the fewest yards per attempt among qualifying quarterbacks this season with 5.5. Sneed, in effect, makes opponents less efficient than the least efficient quarterback in the NFL.

How Sneed puts receivers off their games so consistently begins with a risk-taking, physical approach that pushes him to the very edge of the football rule book. The 6-foot-1, 192-pound defensive back is known for fearlessly pressing receivers at the line of scrimmage, ruining the delicate timing of offensive plays. That tactic comes with the drawback of having less cushion if a receiver can escape the hand-fighting — not that many opponents have been particularly successful at that.

The other potential risk from playing such a hands-on style is when it spills beyond what is strictly legal. Sneed was called for 11 accepted penalties this regular season.

“He loves to press and put his hands on receivers, which receivers don’t like,” said Spagnuolo, who views the penalties as the cost of doing business. “Not everybody can do it at the level he does it.”

Some of the players who can just happen to be Sneed’s own teammates. The Spagnuolo defence in Kansas City is built around physical players in the secondary who relish crashing into their rivals. Plenty of teams try to attack the edge against the Chiefs to put cornerbacks in awkward tackling situations, only to learn that hard way that the Chiefs’ corners “love the contact,” according to safety Justin Reid.

In Sneed’s case, his talents as a tackler and general nuisance to receivers go beyond simply containing opponents. He actually forces them into mistakes. Watson said that he has noticed the receivers Sneed is assigned to cover jump offsides or take an entirely wrong route due to the constant pressure.

“That kind of instils fear in the other teams’ heads,” Watson added.

For Sneed, this run of incredible form couldn’t have come at a better time. He’s set to become a free agent after the Super Bowl, and these days, teams aren’t stingy when it comes to paying elite cornerbacks. Two players at his position have deals that could be worth upwards of $100 million, and the going rate is only increasing. The Chiefs recognise that his stellar play could burn a hole in their pockets. They also realise that it might be worth it.

“He is a fantastic football player but he elevated his game,” says team president Mark Donovan. “He will benefit from that and we have benefited from that.”

In case they needed a reminder of what he can do, Sneed delivered it in the AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens last month.

More Coverage

Don Lane’s one-man mission to sell the Super Bowl to Australia

Shannon Gill

The history-making Aussie Super Bowl punter who couldn’t kick

Eliza Reilly

In the third quarter, he made a rare mistake and gave up a 54-yard reception to Zay Flowers. But it took a furious Sneed all of three plays to atone for it when Flowers was inches away from scoring. As Flowers launched himself at the goal line, Sneed launched himself at Flowers.

With a miraculous one-handed reach, he knocked the ball from Flowers’ grip, denied him a touchdown, and put the Chiefs one step closer to the Super Bowl.

-The Wall Street Journal