Talk about March Madness.
The Kansas City Chiefs just won their second straight Super Bowl thanks in part to the cornerback play of L’Jarius Sneed (remember what he did in the AFC title game to force a fumble?). But he was given the nonexclusive franchise tag this offseason and given that he probably wasn’t getting a bigger contract extension, and now he’s reportedly about to be traded to the Tennessee Titans and given a pile of money as well. We’ll see how the Chiefs deal with his loss as they go for the three-peat.
Whew! So who won or lost this deal? Glad you asked. As always, we graded it for you.
The details of the pending Chiefs – Titans trade
Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter:
Chiefs will get: A 2025 third-round pick and a 2024 seventh round pick swap.
Titans will get: CB L’Jarius Sneed
Tennessee Titans
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
What an offseason so far for the Titans! They’ve spent a ton on upgrades from center Lloyd Cushenberry, WR Calvin Ridley and RB Tony Pollard and now will get Sneed to make up one of the more intriguing free agent classes.
Now: does that make them immediate contenders? Probably not. But let’s see what they do in the draft.
We don’t grade them on all that here, though. But I think they got Sneed for an extremely low price — if he’s as good as he was last year, then he’s worth a future third and an extremely late-round pick swap. As for the extension? Time will tell, but this is a deal you make 10 time out of 10.
GRADE: B+
Kansas City Chiefs
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
This is what happens to Super Bowl winners and contenders: they eventually face a salary cap crunch that requires sacrifices to be made and deals to be reworked and the like.
So giving Sneed what he earned probably wasn’t going to happen, sadly. Yet the return for a cornerback of his caliber was … pretty bad. I guess given the fact that teams knew he was reportedly seeking a trade drove the price down, but still. Meh!
GRADE: C
