The Kansas City Chiefs figured something out when it comes to the timing of offloading expensive cornerbacks. They just recently traded Trent McDuffie to avoid paying him elite money and opted to let Jaylen Watson hit free agency instead of extending him — both became the new cornerback duo with the Los Angeles Rams. But before them, the Chiefs had the foresight to part ways with L’Jarius Sneed.Â
Sneed was released by the Tennessee Titans on Friday, further justifying the Chiefs avoiding lucrative extensions for cornerbacks. It’s a difficult decision to make, but if you draft right, you get the benefit of not worrying about it. Make it somebody else’s problem. We’ll see what happens with McDuffie and Watson, but it worked with Sneed.Â
Maybe it’s an approach more teams are going to lean on if neither McDuffie or Watson pan out with the Rams.Â
L’Jarius Sneed’s anti-climatic tenure in Tennessee sheds light on costly free agency acquisitions
Sneed played just 12 games after inking a four-year, $76 million deal with Tennessee. That's the risk you take when you give a high-end corner that kind of money. Some would say it’s worth paying a starting cornerback above market price, but there’s more risk than reward in doing so. If it were that lucrative to do it, the Chiefs wouldn’t have let him walk. It’s a lesson the Titans and any other team in the NFL can learn from.Â
The Indianapolis Colts are seeing maybe they overpaid for Sauce Gardner in hopes that he’d reprise his rookie season form, coughing up a first round pick to land him. The Rams are going to learn their own fate with McDuffie. With how many good corners you can develop, it makes sense to not pay the good ones a lot of money when you can find replacements in the draft or cheaper options in free agency.Â
The key for the Chiefs is they knew when to sell high on their start cornerbacks. When they got rid of Sneed, they drafted McDuffie. Now that they’ve traded McDuffie, they’ll turn to the NFL Draft to decide who his replacement will be. It’s the cycle that keeps on giving.Â
Kansas City Chiefs prove the risks of paying high-end free agentsÂ
When you look at teams like the Washington Commanders, who have spent upwards of $200 million in salary cap money this offseason, at first you think the Commanders are doing everything they can to build a bulletproof roster. While that may be true, they’re also taking some gambles with hefty contracts. Odafe Oweh inked a four-year, $100 million deal with the Commanders.Â
That’s a lot of money for an EDGE rusher that’s not exactly high-end. I know he’s not a cornerback, but it’s an example of the gamble. He had just 7.5 sacks last year and 10 the year before but didn’t have more than five his first three seasons. As far as high-end corners, there’s now four in the NFL with $100 million-plus contracts.Â
Of those four — excluding McDuffie, so three — Denzel Ward is probably the only one that is justified to make that much money. Jaycee Horn hasn’t quite hit his level and Gardner, though he got hurt last year, just isn’t quite taking that leap. When you look at the corners making $90 million, Pat Surtain II is probably the only one that’s getting underpaid.Â
Derek Stingley Jr. has been a solid pick for the Houston Texans, though Marlon Humphrey’s value was a bit inflated. So if you look at the cornerbacks making $90 million plus, three of the eight of them have lived up to the hype. That’s the risk teams are taking when signing corners to massive extensions.Â
That’s why the Chiefs realize it’s not worth it but also have the wherewithal to trade them while they still have a lot of value rather than waiting for them to get to the offseason and losing them for nothing. Sneed’s release is a stark reminder that it’s costly to land talented defensive backs. It’s also a reminder that the Chiefs have figured out the metric and if other teams followed, it would shrivel the defensive back market, while making draft picks that much more valuable.