On the Draft Board: CFL cornerback Qwan’tez Stiggers is more than a fun story

Kansas City could be looking beyond the ranks of college football for cornerback help.

After last month’s trade of star L’Jarius Sneed to the Tennessee Titans, the Kansas City Chiefs now have an opening at cornerback.

While mock drafts are now starting to predict Chiefs general manager Brett Veach will find a replacement for Sneed in the early rounds of the NFL Draft, history suggests he may wait until the third day — and he is also likely to consider options from outside big-name college programs.

Since choosing Sneed out of Louisiana Tech in the fourth round in 2020, Veach has found four more cornerbacks in the middle to late rounds. Three of them have been from smaller schools. All four have appeared in at least one of Kansas City’s two recent Super Bowl championships.

This season, however, the Chiefs appear to be considering a defensive back even more on the fringes. Per Aaron Wilson of Houston’s KPRC, Qwan’tez Stiggers of the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts visited Kansas City on Thursday as one of the Chiefs’ top-30 visits.

Per Wilson, Stiggers will be visiting at least ten other teams.

What is a “top-30 visit?”

Although the term implies that the visits are for the most coveted draft prospects, NFL teams are allowed a total of 30 in-person visits to facilities.

The Chiefs often use these visits for prospects likely to be available on Day 3 or as undrafted free agents since they will have more control over selecting them than the draft’s top players.

Last year, Kansas City’s eventual second and fifth-round selections — SMU wide receiver Rashee Rice and Stephen F. Austin edge rusher B.J. Thompson — visited the team facilities during the pre-draft process.

To say Stiggers is a unique draft story would be an understatement. Here is what to know.

Background

Hailing from Atlanta, Stiggers was not highly recruited out of high school. He was set to play the 2020 season at Division II’s Lane College in Tennessee. Unfortunately, the pandemic canceled what would have been his first year — and after his father’s untimely death following a car accident, he did not return to school. Two years later, Stiggers joined the 7-on-7 Fan Controlled Football League.

Even though his return to football was with a semi-pro team, Stiggers had made a good decision: his FCFL film led to a tryout with the Argonauts, who signed him before the 2023 season. Despite meager expectations, Stiggers won a starting position and was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie. He was also selected to the league’s All-Star game.

CFL players who come to the NFL can usually be signed as free agents. But because Stiggers never played college football in either in the United States or Canada, he is not yet eligible to sign with an NFL team. So the 22-year-old cornerback participated in the 2024 East-West Shrine Bowl — and is seeking to become only the third player to be drafted into the league with no college football experience.

While not invited to the NFL Combine, 29 teams reportedly attended his private pro day on March 15. Stiggers’ reported 4.45 second 40-yard dash time would have tied for 12th among the Combine’s cornerbacks.

How he fits the Chiefs

In all likelihood, Kansas City is anticipating that one of its third-year pros — Joshua Williams or Jaylen Watson — will slide into Sneed’s vacated role. So it’s likely that 2024’s most immediate need for a rookie defensive back will be filling the special-teams role for whichever player becomes a starter.

Here — on the Shrine Bowl’s opening kickoff — Stiggers brings down Kenny Logan after the Kansas Jayhawks’ safety gets by the first two West players.

With the league’s new kickoff rule likely to be a factor in this year’s late-round draft selections, Kansas City special teams coordinator Dave Toub is likely to have a voice in players added in the late rounds or as undrafted free agents; Stiggers’ willingness to help out in the return game will be a positive factor.

On defense, Stiggers’ one season in Canada suggests solid ball skills. This interception from his debut against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats was the first of five he would record.

Despite his lack of college football experience, Stiggers more than held his own at the Shrine Bowl. On this route from the third practice, he immediately disrupts the receiver’s route at the line of scrimmage — showing the kind of aggressive, sticky coverage that Chiefs’ defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo covets in his cornerbacks.

The bottom line

While it’s true for any prospect, Stiggers’ draft stock is especially difficult to predict without knowledge of teams’ internal discussions. Without traditional game film to analyze, decisions must be based entirely on projecting his athletic tools.

Based on his visit schedule, teams are clearly intrigued by the player Stiggers could become. If the Chiefs select him, it should be seen as a ringing endorsement from a scouting staff with a strong recent track record of finding defensive backs.

The effects of the pandemic are still being seen across college football. As the transfer portal and NIL payments continue to disrupt the sport even further, more players like Stiggers will fall through the cracks. Whether it is in Kansas City or elsewhere, his journey of perseverance will be a draft (and rookie) story to follow.