L'Jarius
Sneed.
L'Jarius
Sneed.
Louisiana Tech· 6'0"· 192 lb· 4.37s 40
"A 4.37 small-school defensive back with three career pick-sixes who played three years at corner and one at safety, and whose position label mattered less than his closing speed."Pre-draft read
Sneed is a 6-1, 193-pound defensive back who spent three years at corner and his senior season at safety, and the versatility is the point rather than a hedge. He is long-striding and physical, drives downhill on throws in front of him with real intent, and finishes tackles in space instead of dragging ball carriers down.
The ball skills travel with him wherever he lines up: eight interceptions in four seasons, three of them returned for touchdowns, including a 68-yard pick-six as a senior. He ran 4.37 with a 41-inch vertical, and the burst shows in how fast he closes the last five yards. Route anticipation is still catching up after a year away from corner, and he grabs when beaten early. The signature is downhill closing speed.
A man-heavy defense that wants a physical press corner able to travel with a No. 1 receiver, with the safety background as a fallback rather than the plan.
Year 1 rotational corner and special teamer who wins a starting job by midseason, with a ceiling as a true No. 1 shadow corner on a championship defense.
A pure zone-match defense that keeps corners passive and never lets him drive downhill or blitz off the slot.
Louisiana Tech S L'Jarius Sneed Highlight Reel - 2019 Season
Senior-season reel from his year at safety, including the pick-six against North Texas.
L'Jarius Sneed Louisiana Tech Highlights
The team's own post-draft college cut-up of the range, closing speed and ball skills.
Chiefs CB L'Jarius Sneed - Rookie Film Room Highlights
Rookie-year film study of the move back to cornerback in Kansas City.
Sneed arrived at Louisiana Tech from Minden, twenty minutes down the road, and played as a true freshman in all fourteen games in 2016, starting the last two and taking his first career interception 48 yards for a touchdown in the Conference USA championship game against Western Kentucky.
He grew into the job from there. He made six starts across eleven games as a sophomore in 2017 with 30 tackles, an interception and six pass breakups, then broke out as a junior in 2018: thirteen games, twelve starts, 59 tackles, eight pass breakups, three interceptions and a twelve-yard pick-six against UTEP, good for honorable mention All-Conference USA. Then the staff moved him to safety as a senior. He started all thirteen games there, led the team with 72 tackles, added 3.5 tackles for loss and three more interceptions including a 68-yard touchdown return against North Texas, posted a career-high thirteen tackles at Marshall and made second-team All-Conference USA. His three career pick-sixes tied for the most among active players.
The board saw a small-school defensive back without a settled position, which is usually a discount. Then he ran 4.37 with a 41-inch vertical at the combine and the discount shrank. Kansas City took him at 138 and put him back at corner.
- 01
Elite testing
A 4.37 forty and a 41-inch vertical at 6-1, 193 pounds put him among the best athletes at any defensive back spot in the class.
- 02
Ball production
Eight career interceptions with three returned for touchdowns, tying him for the most pick-sixes among active college players at the time.
- 03
Positional versatility
Three years of starting experience at cornerback plus a full senior season at safety, which gives a defense multiple ways to deploy him.
- 04
Tackling in space
Led Louisiana Tech with 72 tackles as a senior and finishes cleanly rather than grabbing at ball carriers on the perimeter.
- 05
Downhill trigger
Drives on throws in front of him with conviction and closes the final five yards faster than his coverage leverage suggests he should.
- 01
Position uncertainty
A year at safety after three at corner left teams debating where he actually belongs, which costs a player early reps.
- 02
Level of competition
Conference USA offenses rarely tested him with the route trees and receiver quality he will see weekly in the NFL.
- 03
Coverage anticipation
Reads the quarterback more than the route stem and can be late recognizing double moves off that habit.
- 04
Handsiness
Grabs at the top of routes when a receiver wins the release, a habit officials will punish more heavily in the pros.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.37sp50
- Vertical
- 41inp50
- Broad jump
- 131inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 12repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Louisiana Tech | 14 | 17 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | Louisiana Tech | 11 | 30 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| 2018 | Louisiana Tech | 13 | 59 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| 2019 | Louisiana Tech | 13 | 72 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 51 | 178 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
Season lines come from the Louisiana Tech athletics bio. Career tackles (178) and interceptions (8) are the sum of the four published seasons; games (51) and starts (33) likewise. Pass-breakup totals were not published for 2016 or 2019 and are left empty rather than estimated, so no career pass-breakup figure is given. He played cornerback from 2016 through 2018 and moved to safety as a senior. Three of his eight interceptions were returned for touchdowns.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A physical, versatile defensive back who starts inside and out and blitzes as a bonus.
The ceiling: an undervalued corner who becomes the defense's travel assignment and wins rings doing it.
A small-school athlete who bounces between roles and rosters without ever owning one job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Kansas City moved him straight back to cornerback and he started nine games as a rookie in 2020, with 41 tackles, three interceptions and two sacks in a defense that reached Super Bowl LV. He became a full-time starter after that: fifteen games and two interceptions in 2021, then a career year in 2022 with 108 tackles, 3.5 sacks, three interceptions, eleven passes defended and a Super Bowl LVII ring. In 2023 he posted 78 tackles, two interceptions and fourteen passes defended as the Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII, and he was regularly assigned to travel with the opponent's best receiver.
That leverage got him paid. Kansas City traded him to Tennessee in March of 2024 on a four-year deal worth roughly $76 million, and the move went badly — injuries held him to five games in 2024 and seven in 2025 before the Titans released him. He returned to the Chiefs on a one-year deal in 2026. Through seven seasons he has 367 tackles, ten interceptions, 44 passes defended, 6.5 sacks and two rings. For the 138th pick, this is one of the great value selections of the decade, and the only thing that kept it from being cleaner was the contract year that followed.