The Chiefs’ secondary is in the middle of a major reset, and the first few days of camp have already made it clear that nothing is going to be simple for Steve Spagnuolo.
Kansas City is trying to replace three starters after Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson moved on to the Los Angeles Ram and Bryan Cook headed to the Cincinnati Bengals. That kind of turnover would be tricky under any circumstances. Add in a few familiar faces, a high draft pick, and a veteran comeback story, and the picture gets even messier.
The biggest wrinkle so far is L’Jarius Sneed.
Kansas City brought him back in early June after his run with the team’s back-to-back Super Bowl championship wins in 2022 and 2023, then his trade to the Tennessee Titans and a rough two-year stretch there that included knee issues and just 12 games played out of a possible 34. The Titans released him in mid-March to clear salary cap space, and now he’s back in the building with a real chance to factor into the starting picture.
On the first defensive day of camp, Sneed lined up outside opposite Nohl Williams while rookie Mansoor Delane rotated in. The next day, Delane took the outside spot and Sneed worked with Williams. Sneed even slid into the slot on Thursday, a spot he hasn’t played much since 2022.
He’s been leaving both practices before team periods as part of his knee management and ramp-up, but his return has already complicated the competition for younger corners.
“You know how I feel about him,” Spagnuolo said. “It’s like having the son come back, right?
Now, you guys know he’s in the ramp-up. He hasn’t really been out there, but when you see him just in the jog-throughs that we do against ourselves, you can see it’s coming back.
“He’s excited, too. I love the way L.J., Nick (Bolton), Drue (Tranquill), Chamarri (Conner) - I love the way they interact.
They were together for those number of years when we were playing really well. So hopefully we can find that same ingredient.”
Delane still looks like the safest bet to start in Week 1 because of the investment Kansas City made in him with the No. 6 overall pick. But he’s also wearing a yellow non-contact jersey while dealing with the shoulder injury he suffered during the offseason program, and Spagnuolo acknowledged the rookie is still working through the early stages of the transition.
“He’s going through, let’s call it, Stage Three,” Spagnuolo said. “First, he did rookie minicamp where he was just around rookies, and the vets came in for some OTAs, but it’s pajama football, right?
And now we’re about to get into training camp where it gets real. I’ve seen him kind of progress.
“Early on in the rookie training camp here, he needed a little bit of time to get his legs underneath him. He had the shoulder deal, so I’m sure he wasn’t able to do as much as he would normally do in the offseason, but I like the way he’s interacting with the guys.”
If Sneed stays healthy and looks like a top-two corner, the squeeze could land on second-year player Nohl Williams. Kristian Fulton, meanwhile, has not seen much first-team work yet. There’s also a scenario in which Delane and Williams both push hard enough to make Sneed the best fit at nickel, which would leave Kader Kohou, rookie Jadon Canady or Chris Roland-Wallace in a backup lane.
That possibility only matters, though, if Sneed can stay on the field and prove he can hold up.
At safety, the Chiefs appear to have a clearer idea of what they want. The additions of Kohou and Canady have pointed toward Chamarri Conner spending more time in a traditional safety role after filling in at nickel for much of the last two seasons. Spagnuolo said that’s been the trend this offseason, though he stopped short of locking anything in.
“If you watched OTAs, he hasn’t played as much nickel,” Spagnuolo said of Conner. “He’s played more safety, but that’s really to get some of the other guys ready.
I think we can always put him back there in a pinch, but this gives him a little bit more time deep that he didn’t have last year. So I think we’ll still have some flexibility with him at both positions.”
Alohi Gilman, signed as a direct replacement for Cook at free safety, has also started to make his presence felt. Spagnuolo pointed to a small but telling moment in the red zone on Thursday, when Gilman went over to congratulate Nohl Williams after a big play and wanted to do a little dance.
“It’s funny - I’ve seen a change from the OTA practices to now,” Spagnuolo said of Gilman. “It was in the red zone today.
Nohl Williams made a really big play, and I saw Gil go right over, congratulate him, wanted to do a little dance. Just something that little showed me what he’s all about.
“He’s a cerebral player. That’s what we thought when we got him here, and hopefully he’ll be that going forward.”
Beyond Conner and Gilman, Spagnuolo still sounded like Jaden Hicks is in the rotation rather than locked into a full-time job, and there’s still a path for an undrafted player like Xavier Nwankpa to push his way into the mix.
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