As the Kansas City Chiefs embark on a new season for the first time without star cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is taking the opportunity to shuffle pieces around to give his secondary a new look.
After a few weeks at camp, nothing is set in stone and we’ll have a better idea of the personnel at corner and safety after the Chiefs scrimmage the Jaguars on Saturday.
So far, the biggest change the Chiefs made towards replacing Sneed, is moving third-year corner Trent McDuffie outside as the new CB1. McDuffie earned all-pro honors in each of the last two seasons as Kansas City nickel corner. Now, he’ll be defending against the top receivers in the game.
Replacing McDuffie as the third corner so far in camp has been second-year safety Chamarri Conner, who spoke with the media on Monday about the experience he’s gained as a rookie and playing in various spots in Spagnuolo’s defensive schemes.
“It’s just been great – a long process,” Conner said. “Learning all the different spots [and] all the different positions, it’s definitely been great. [I’ve] been getting a lot of help from the guys. Even since last year, been getting a lot of help from the older safeties. [I’ve been] training at the nickel spot, so it’s been great.”
Conner gradually saw more snaps as the 2023 season went on. In total, he played just 28% (305) of the defensive snaps during the regular season. In the playoffs, Conner saw extended time on the field, playing 162 snaps on defense, recording 11 tackles and a forced fumble.
This year, Conner is working to earn a bigger role on defense and said the experience he’s gained in the postseason is paying dividends.
“I definitely needed that,” Conner said of his championship experience. “It was a great postseason. I definitely think it helped me a lot being able to get all those plays under my belt and play in those big-time games. It definitely helped me (and) helped my confidence.”
Playing as the slot corner is essentially a starting role on the defensive side of the ball since Spags typically likes to use the 4-2-5 formation as his base defense during games. Conner’s versatility to line up at multiple positions puts him in the mix to see a larger role this upcoming season.
