Veach Summons the Three-in-One: A Trio of Corners in a Solitary Draft – most every fan was huddled near a television, or around a radio — ala 1940s style — of course the young were gullibly Googling while others were mulishly smart phoning, but all were awaiting an announcement, the first draft pick of their favorite Super Bowl team: the Kansas City Chiefs. For months, no years, the Chiefs have been in need of improving their defensive backfield, and more specifically, their cornerbacks. Even your neighbor’s grandma’s best friend’s cousin’s dog knew it too. The moment that the Chiefs revealed that their first pick was a running back, I was only mildly surprised. Actually, I just lied, I was shocked and disappointed. If you were in the room with me you could see the word, “NOOOOO” trailing from my mouth like Ferris Bueller’s friend Cameron when he finds out there’s an extra 125 miles on his father’s 1961 Ferrari 250 GT. True, I also blogged that same response here on Disqus because I’d built up quite an expectation for a top corner… or linebacker…. So much so that any other pick seemed irresponsible or petty and certainly needless.
Now that the draft is over, a completely different set of emotions fill the room. Basically, those of deep satisfaction and the realization that I know nothing and Brett Veach knows it all. Why? Because the Chiefs ended up with three very good corners to stabilize a collection of CBs that was both green and meager. Now however, in one fell swoop, Mr. Veach has filled the CB list full enough that there will be good players cut in late August this year.
I know, you’re thinking that the Chiefs only drafted two CBs, one in the 4th round and one in the 7th. However, the three corners that Brett Veach brought to K.C. are: Lavert Hill — as a UDFA — L’Jarius Sneed — a 4th round pick — and Thakarius “Bopeat” Keyes — a player Veach traded a 2021 6th round pick for and chose in this year’s 7th round. Let’s look at the impact of each corner.
Let’s begin with our UDFA CB, Lavert Hill.
Lavert Hill
Hill is a corner I wanted the Chiefs to consider drafting. I thought that much of him when researching his game, pre-draft. He played four years for a big time Big Ten school in Michigan. The smallish corner put up a bullish 21 rep on the bench press at the combine. However, that’s the only workout he participated in. From four years ago when he was a four star recruit and chose Michigan over Penn State, he ran a 4.41 40 yard dash so we know he has speed. Rotoworld says.
“Hill plays with “in-your-face press technique” and has the speed to recover if he loses a step at some point. Hill is also fantastic at playing the ball in the air despite his size. However, [Lance] Zierlein has some concerns about where Hill will play considering he is a bit small to play outside, yet does not have the side-to-side quickness to keep up in the slot. It may take a few years in the league for Hill to find his place.”
The Chiefs DB coaches, Sam Madison and Dave Merritt will not only coach him up but help Hill figure out where he fits best fit into Steve Spgnuolo’s system. Here are a series of tweets that sums up the bumpy ride Lavert Hill has taken this draft season:
Lavert Hill played for Michigan for four seasons in 36 games with 6 INTs and 56 tackles. In fact, he’s a willing and able tackler with 7 TFLs. You can tell what the Chiefs think of his talent by what he was given to come to K.C as an UDFA:
L’Jarius Sneed
When Sneed was drafted we all thought that Veach had drafted another Safety. As it turns out, Sneed only played Safety his Senior year but was a corner prior to that. When interviewed after he was drafted, he said he was glad he got the year at Safety and that it gave him some background knowledge about what everyone on the defense should be doing. Sounds like a Tyrann Mathieu disciple to me.
While Lavert Hill may need to be worked with to find his best fit position wise, Sneed will settle in as a corner who can flip to the slot or play the Safety role anytime Steve Spagnuolo wants him to. That turned out to be the best utilization of Kendall Fuller and so it looks like Sneed may be set to take that role on. However, K.C. also needs a corner who can jump outside and stay with a WR who runs a deep route and Sneed has the speed and length to do just that.
Sneed’s 4.37 speed and ability to turn his head around like Linda Blair in the Exorcist is uncommon. At 6-foot-1 and 193 lbs. that ability to race downfield and turn around is crucial to the success of any corner. We’ve seen too many times when a Chiefs CB wasn’t able to do that so one of his strengths will be wondrously welcome. How does Sneed stack up against other Conference-USA DBs?
Here’s Sneed’s four year stat line from Sports Reference:
Thakarius “Bopete” Keyes
I understand that Bopete greatly prefers to be called “Bopete” so don’t be cheering that other first name you see listed here. Brett Veach traded a 6th round pick in the 2021 draft for the chance to draft Bopete in this year’s 7th round with the 237th pick. From Craig Stout at ArrowheadPride:
Matt Derrick shared about Keyes’ background:
Here are a few Keyes highlights. He’s #26 and you may want to MUTE beforehand (offensive language):
NFLDraftRite.com says that Keyes’ positives include:
“Keyes displays crisp footwork at the LOS and fluid hips allowing him to stay on base and mirror receivers throughout their release. He does need to be more aggressive in his jabs which are rather weak at this point, but regardless his overall press coverage ability is his greatest attribute.”
NFLDraftRite also says Keyes needs to work on:
“While Keyes thrives in close-man/press coverage, his jab at the line is weak despite the fact that he has the length and size to knock receivers off balance in their release.”
The Chiefs stable of cornerbacks wasn’t empty by any means. Because of the players that he already had lined up, it gave Veach the freedom to draft the best prospects listed on his board as they fell to him. I expect Charvarius Ward to have his best year yet and he should be recognized for it this year. The return of Bashaud Breeland was the stabilizing move for this group. The addition of Antonio Hamilton may be for a veteran presence but he’s a very good special teams player if he doesn’t contribute in coverage. Plus, Rashad Fenton is close to where Ward was a year ago: he had some major contributions and solid play when he had the chance, but hasn’t had a full year to explore the ceiling of his skills. Fenton could also be the CB who fills that Kendall Fuller role, once all the cards are laid on the table.
All three of these new corners should not only make the 2020 roster but find time on the field this season, even if the team’s offseason program is truncated for some mysterious reason. They also represent three corners who will cover an important position in the years to come. A position that until just a few weeks ago, had only one contracted CB scheduled to play for the Chiefs in 2021: Rashad Fenton. Now, all of that has changed… and in a big way. Maybe, just maybe, the three in one is looking down on Veach’s three in one with envy.
Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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