The Chiefs already have their future replacement for CB L'Jarius Sneed on the roster

Nazeeh Johnson is following the same track as L'Jarius Sneed did with the Chiefs

Sneed and Johnson have a lot in common, and their track in the NFL has been quite similar. Sneed played safety in his senior season at Louisiana Tech while Johnson was a former college safety at Marshall. Sneed did have the luxury of having played corner earlier in his college football career. 

When Sneed was drafted in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL draft, then-Chiefs area scout Willie Davis felt Sneed's best spot was probably cornerback. It didn't matter that he didn't play that position as a senior with the Bulldogs.

“Corner is probably his best position," Davis said in 2020. "You have a long, fast kid with really good ball skills. Really smart. He understands how to play the position. He can play both press, he’s a long big kid that can get up in the face of receivers and play press corner, and he has the instincts and the knowledge to play off also.”

Chiefs area scout Cassidy Kaminski identified some of those same traits in Johnson, namely recognizing his impressive speed. 

"You recognize that straight‐line speed right away," Kaminski said of Johnson in 2022. "He lines up in the nickel and he’s in the hip pocket with these guys – the 4.35 shows up. That trail‐man coverage, he’s right in the hip pocket no matter what type of athlete is in the slot, he can match up with it. I believe that will transfer over to this league and he’ll have an opportunity.”

Johnson, however, didn't get the same opportunity to play corner right off the jump. He started as a safety in his earliest practices in Kansas City, but the team quickly learned his skill set was best suited elsewhere.

"In rookie minicamp that I was at safety, and it was kind of like a big learning curve,” Johnson told A to Z Sports. “Because the safeties in the NFL have to know what everybody's doing, make the calls, you got to be vocal. And really, on the field, I'm not as vocal. We communicate, but safeties have got to over-communicate because they’re the quarterbacks of the defense. So they moved me to corner." 

Just like Sneed, Johnson was moved to the nickel corner spot to start. He took to the position and the coaching from DC Steve Spagnuolo. 

“So, they made the switch going into OTAs," He said. "I actually started at nickel — had a really good time at nickel. I understand the plays at nickel and then at training camp they said, ‘We’re going to move you strictly to corner. We’re going to have you learn corner.'" 

What gave the coaching staff the confidence to make this decision to move Johnson to corner? They'd seen his athletic traits translate before their eyes. 

“How they identified that within me was my accolades, my numbers, my pro day numbers,” Johnson explained. “Super fast safety, very explosive. So they were like, if I'm in the post, sometimes you're kind of wasting that type of speed and agility, just roaming back there.”

Filling Sneed's shoes won't be an easy task

Replacing a cornerback of L'Jarius Sneed's caliber isn't something done overnight. The veteran didn’t allow a touchdown until the Chiefs’ divisional-round playoff win over the Buffalo Bills this past postseason. He was one of the few defenders Steve Spagnuolo has ever trusted to shadow an opposing team's No. 1 wide receiver. 

From an athletic standpoint, Johnson has the speed, explosion, and agility to fill Sneed's shoes. The coaching staff is comfortable with his positional flexibility between nickel and corner, just as they were with Sneed's flex at those two spots. The area that might be the most challenging is the learning curve in his transition from playing safety in college to playing corner in Spagnuolo's scheme. 

“The biggest thing I can say that a lot of people understand is like, it's hard for a safety that played off the ball, never having pressed nobody in college to go and now you've got to press people who are used to being in press man," Johnson said. "Now, I’ve got to learn a whole new technique while learning the playbook. While going against one of the best wide receiver groups in the NFL and a great quarterback that puts the ball on the money every time."

Johnson wasn't thrown into the fire the same way that teammates like Trent McDuffie, Jaylen Watson, and Joshua Williams were. They, however, had a baseline for playing corner, whereas Johnson had to learn everything from the ground up. 

"I was doubting myself at the beginning, because it was hard," Johnson admitted. "Like, you go from safety to corner, and now you got to get hands-on and now you’re getting yelled at for your technique, and everything, but they kept working with me. And I really appreciate that they worked with me. What I did this last camp was everything that whole year of just learning how to play corner, you know, trusting my abilities, and just doing all that stuff. And it's all coming full circle. It's why I was producing in OTAs and camp (before I got hurt)."

With eyes to OTAs in late May and early June, Johnson hopes to pick up right where he left off before his injury. He's grown confident that he can play faster than ever before, and he's out to prove himself once again in hopes of contributing to another Super Bowl run.  

"I've got no choice," Johnson told A to Z Sports. "I left off too good to not come back and be right where I left off."