One of the most significant off-season decisions the Kansas City Chiefs had to make was re-signing Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed. However, after several attempts to get a deal done, he was ultimately traded to the Tennesse Titans for a 2025 third-round pick. Now, he seems bitter about the move out of Kansas City.
The NFL is a business, and nobody understands that better than Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach. In building a three-time Super Bowl Champion team, he has been a magician at managing the NFL salary cap and prioritizing which player to retain or sign in free agency.
After winning Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, he had three high-profile free agents to get under contract: Chris Jones, Drue Tranquill, and L’Jarius Sneed. At the onset of free agency in March, Veach prioritized signing Jones and Tranquill.
That left him no choice but to place the Franchise Tag on Sneed for the 2024 season. According to sources, the Chiefs were willing to keep the tag on Sneed all season if that meant retaining him. However, his agent, Safarrah Lawson with the St. Louis Group, who has a singular active NFL player in his portfolio, demanded the Chiefs pay his only client a room full of riches.
With the tag in place, the Chiefs went back and forth but ultimately fell short of the mark the Tennessee Titans were willing to pay. In the sign-and-trade deal, Sneed received $55 million in guarantees on a four-year $76.4 million contract. In reality, he was never going to re-sign with the Chiefs.
Kansas City was ok with the length of the deal, but they didn’t come close to the guarantees Lawson attempted to get from the Chiefs.
With the regular season a week away, Sneed appears bitter about the trade and claims he never spoke to the Chiefs to hear his side of the equation.
In an interview on the Pivot Podcast, he claimed to be upset about being a Titan instead of a Chief. He referenced the rings they won together and said Kansas City was his first love. Those are lovely sentiments, but he, not his agent is the person in charge of the direction of his NFL career.
Instead, he and his agent told anyone who asked that Sneed was for hire and nothing short of the top dollar would get it done. For the Chiefs, concerns about his knee pushed their pursuit of Sneed at considerable risk. Hence, they used the franchise tag and played a waiting game until teams like the Indianapolis Colts and Tenessee Titans did their own due diligence on a possible trade.
Sneed has practiced very little with the Titans since the signing. It’s clear the knee, despite passing a physical, is still a concern. This will mark the second straight season, Sneed didn’t participate in OTA’s, Mini-Camp, Traning Camp or take a snap in the preseason.
So why is showing regret now?
Your guess is as good as mine. He got his coin; he’s playing for a decent team that likely won’t compete for a division title for a year or two, and perhaps the glory of a three-peat champion finally caught up with him.
Either way, he could have at any time called Brett Veach, like Chris Jones did a year ago, and said, “Hey, let’s work this out.” Instead, he let an inexperienced agent get him the best deal available. So again, why is he complaining?
Sneed was brilliant in Kansas City, and the coaching staff and trainers found a groove so he could rest the knee and play at a high level in games.
They made a business decision, and so did Sneed!
