L’Jarius Sneed comes to Tennessee looking to help a defense on the rise, but he's also expecting some improvement of his own thanks the Titans' playmakers on the other side.
Following his trade from Kansas City, Sneed now has two big-name wide receivers in DeAndre Hopkins and Calvin Ridley to line up against every practice, an aspect he believes will add yet another layer to his game.
"To get out there and work with them elite wide receivers, I never had two elite guys like them, going up against them every day," Sneed said this week on SiriusXM NFL Radio. "I had great players, but them two guys, household names, they stick out. I can't wait to get to work with those guys. I know they're gonna make me better in practice, and I can't wait to pick both of their brains on how to get better. What they see. What my weakness is from their eyes and not from other guys I've been playing with for four years. I want new guys looking from the outside in."
The Chiefs obviously made do after moving on from Tyreek Hill following 2021, finishing both seasons since with a Super Bowl victory, but Kansas City hasn't employed a true No. 1 WR in either year.
With the team's recent approach of piecemealing a corps greater than the sum of its parts, Sneed hasn't squared off on the boundary against a daily wideout duo comparable to the one he'll see in Tennessee.
The ageless Hopkins has 928 career receptions with 12,355 receiving yards, 78 touchdowns and three All-Pro nods. He's coming off his first season as a Titan, one which netted him the seventh 1,000-yard receiving campaign of his 11-year career.
Ridley, who joins Sneed as a Titans newcomer, is also fresh off a 1,000-yard receiving season, and he passed that threshold despite his 2023 with the Jacksonville Jaguars being roundly considered underwhelming.
Sneed is set to swap between covering the two in practice sessions with cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, yet another offseason addition. Those matchups are certain to deliver the "iron sharpens iron" headlines that so often litter the long march to the regular season.
Such storylines, after all the moves made by general manager Ron Carthon and new head coach Brian Callahan, must ultimately lead to tangible results. Tennessee just finished 27th in points scored and 16th in points allowed during its second consecutive losing season, a sudden drought on the heels of four playoff trips in the five years before that.
The hill back to contention appears steep to climb, especially with the rest of the AFC South likewise tooling up to chase the Houston Texans, who have perhaps improved the most of anyone in the division on top of capturing it in 2023.
After winning two Super Bowls with the Chiefs, though, Sneed is ready for the challenge that comes with new beginnings. It'll start with those new battles in practice and, aided by a fresh start, hopefully continue with his evolution on display in the games to come.
"Once I realized where I was headed to, I was excited," he said. "It's a new culture, and that's something I love is change. I love growing, whatever aspect that is in life, I love change and I love to grow."
