The Chiefs knew they were never going to be able to afford L'Jarius Sneed. Four days after trading him to Tennessee, they were proven right.
Sneed has agreed to terms on a four-year, $76.4 million deal with the Titans, which includes $55 million in guaranteed money and a $20 million signing bonus, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported on Tuesday, per sources.
At an average annual value of $19.1 million per year, Sneed's new contract places him ever so slightly ahead of the recently re-signed Jaylon Johnson ($19 million per year), and just behind the likes of Marshon Lattimore ($19.4 million), Trevon Diggs ($19.4 million) and Marlon Humphrey ($19.5 million). Although his four-year deal will pay him less per year than his one-year franchise tag would have (by about $700,000), Sneed is firmly among the top seven highest-paid cornerbacks in football -- and has the contractual security to match it.
Sneed's deal follows his trade to the Titans, in which Kansas City accepted a 2025 third-round pick and a swap of 2024 seventh-round selections in order to gain some return on the cornerback who was destined to cash in elsewhere. The picks may not end up being worth trading Sneed, but this -- i.e., maximizing contributions from a star on a rookie deal before shipping him elsewhere when it's time to pay him -- is how the Chiefs remain perennially competitive. They prepared for such a move two years ago when selecting eventual All-Pro Trent McDuffie, and used multiple other picks to restock the secondary (which had also lost Charvarius Ward in 2022) since then.
Tennessee, meanwhile, receives a fourth-round cornerback who has certainly outplayed his draft slot. Sneed has won two Super Bowls with the Chiefs and been more than open to doing whatever defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has asked him to do, playing a number of key roles along the way. He's also coming off of another excellent season, in which he recorded a career-high 14 passes defensed and didn't allow a single touchdown, despite seeing 90 targets as the nearest defender, per Next Gen Stats.
The Next Gen Stats realm is, in fact, where Sneed tends to thrive, which remained the case in 2023: Including playoff games, Sneed finished first in completion percentage allowed (48.2) among those seeing at least 80 targets. He was a top-two finisher in yards per target allowed and passer rating allowed, too, as part of a Chiefs defense that proved itself as the backbone of Kansas City's run to consecutive Super Bowl titles.
Sneed will attempt to carry over that winning pedigree to Tennessee, a place that certainly could use a jolt under a new regime.
