L’Jarius Sneed’s game-changing play began with some trickery. He thought he needed it against one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ third-year cornerback, Snead, says he likes to study pregame footage of opposing team’s signal callers each week to develop his coverage and blitz game plan. increase.
The scouting report for Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady was simple this time. His throw will come out soon.
“So I tried to show that I wasn’t coming,” said Snead. Chiefs beat Buccaneers 41-31 on Sunday night. “And when I hit him.”
In this case the beauty was in the details.
If NFL fans saw a shortened replay of Snead’s strip sack in the second quarter, they’d missed the best part. Seconds before the snap, Snead goes to Hollywood to beat up Brady.
And meanwhile, Snead went from playing calmly to sprinting off the edge, leading to a Chris Jones fumble recovery and the Chiefs extending their lead from 21-10 to 28-10 late in the second quarter.
“That’s what I do,” Snead said of his acting career.
Here’s how Snead dealt with it right before the snap. He placed his hands loosely on his helmet. Then he readjusted his gloves for a moment, and he took two steps back, as if he were preparing for an interview mission.
It was all for show.
As Brady tried to call the snap, Snead burst in the opposite direction. .
While rewatching the play on his mobile phone in the KC locker room, Chiefs safety Justin Reed described what he saw: …it was money.
“I can’t put into words how much it’s worth to us to have that kind of explosive play. We live off of it — the whole team does.” said Reed. “And just stack them up, and good things tend to happen.”
It was the second week in a row that Snead made this type of play. Chiefs’ Week 3 loss.
Snead leads KC with three sacks in four games. He also has a reputation as a pass rusher at times, so he also had to consider how best to hide his true intentions if his role is to go after quarterbacks.
“The backend guys are disguised well. I try to wait,” Snead said. “I know Tom Brady will pick it up soon, so I waited and tried to disguise it.”
That’s just part of the reason that play was wrapped up on Sunday.
Talk to Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnolo about Sneed.Snead desire That’s why Spagnuolo enjoys seeing minor weekly advancements add up to bigger changes over time.
The addition of the pass rush skill is also part of that. Snead says he asked the Chiefs’ defensive his lineman for advice on how to improve.
Developing physical gifts also helped. Once Snead received the blitz call his code from the Chiefs coach, he was able to quickly get around Edge with his speed.
It was a good start to 2022. By Sunday, Snead was rated as the Chiefs’ fourth-best defender, according to pro football’s measure of his focus. 2nd best “Pass Rush” grade among NFL qualifying cornerbacks.
And while it took both development and finesse to get to this point, Sneed considers himself far from reaching the ultimate advantage.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” says Sneed. “It’s just the beginning of my goals.”