Coming off a superb season with the Kansas City Chiefs, cornerback L’Jarius Sneed was given the franchise tag rather than a new contract with the team. But according to one report, nearly a quarter of the league is already waiting in the wings to make a trade offer for him.
According to USA Today via ProFootballTalk , seven different teams have expressed degrees of interest in the star cornerback. Those seven teams are the Minnesota Vikings, Indianapolis Colts, Tennessee Titans, New England Patriots, Detroit Lions, Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars.
PFT’s Michael David Smith believes that a trade will manifest because the Chiefs are eager to get his $19.8 million guaranteed contract number off their books.
“For a trade to work out, a new team would have to get Sneed to agree to a contract extension, and get the Chiefs to agree to trade him. That will probably happen: With Sneed’s franchise tag now counting $19.8 million against the Chiefs’ salary cap, they’re just barely under the cap for 2024, and they’d rather move on from him and devote that cap space elsewhere. And Sneed is a good enough cornerback that some team will surely think he’s worth both a big contract and some draft picks to get the Chiefs to trade him,” Smith wrote.
Sneed has been a rock solid cornerback since joining the Chiefs as a fourth-round pick out of Louisiana Tech. In four seasons he’s started 54 of 57 games played, logging 40 passes defended, 10 interceptions, three fumble recoveries, 6.5 sacks and 303 tackles.
While the Chiefs might be disappointed to have to give up such a player, there is bound to be a team out there willing to give them good compensation for a player playing so close to an elite level.
Where do you think Sneed will play next season?