Chiefs CB L’Jarius Sneed Headed Back To IR

Three years ago, Sneed was wrapping up a four-year run of excellent cornerback play, culminating in back-to-back Super Bowl championships. Initially, following the expiration of Sneed’s rookie contract, the Chiefs applied their franchise tag to keep him in place, but they eventually opted to trade Sneed shortly into free agency to the Titans.

The knowledge that the team acquiring him would need to brace their wallet for an extension limited his trade value. The eventual agreement sent Sneed to Tennessee in exchange for a third-rounder and a seventh-round swap. The announcement of the trade was quickly followed up with that of Sneed’s extension, designed to keep him in place for four years at $76.4MM.

The deal turned out to be a disaster for the Titans. Sneed looked like a shadow of his former playmaking self. A quadriceps strain limited him to only five games before he was eventually put on IR and scheduled for surgery. Because he missed so much playing time, Sneed didn’t qualify for Pro Football Focus’s position rankings (subscription required) in 2024, but a then-career-low defensive grade of 36.3 would have slotted him in as the worst player at his position to qualify for the rankings.

Last year, Sneed’s season came to a similar end, with a quad injury ending his season after only seven games. A return this year to Kansas City looked to be an opportunity for Sneed to turn things back around with the team that drafted him and had just missed the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. Unfortunately, the move didn’t change much. After four starts to open the season, Sneed had been benched with diminishing snaps over the past two weeks.

The team didn’t seem to imply that today’s IR placement was indicative of a season-ending ailment for Sneed. In that sense, he’ll still have an opportunity to show improvement this year by getting healthy enough to play in the final weeks of the season for the first time since his first stint in Kansas City.

Joining Sneed as an inactive defender tomorrow will be rookie cornerback Mansoor Delane. The No. 6 overall pick has been outstanding to start his career out of LSU. Through the first two months of the season, PFR ranked Delane as the seventh-best cornerback in the NFL. With the secondary down one starter on the perimeter and its primary nickelback, the Chiefs will likely fill Kristian Fulton and Christian Roland-Wallace in next to remaining starter Nohl Williams.