Titans had to duke it out with a few other teams for L'Jarius Sneed trade

The Tennessee Titans were relentless in their pursuit of former Kansas City Chiefs defensive back L'Jarius Sneed. Prior to being slapped with the franchise tag, Sneed was a prime target to sign elsewhere in his free agency. Given that he never made big money in Kansas City, he was bound to leave, especially in the wake of the massive deal the Chiefs game to Chris Jones a few weeks ago.

While other teams were in the mix for Sneed, the Titans continued to work with the Chiefs until they had a deal for the secondary phenom. However, they were not the only suitor looking at adding Sneed. According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, "teams that poked around over the last few weeks on Sneed included the Vikings, Patriots and Colts" in addition to the Titans and the Chiefs.

Although the interest the Minnesota Vikings and the New England Patriots may have in Sneed seems to have been overstated, I am still a little shocked he did not end up with the Indianapolis Colts. It always felt like Sneed was going to leave anyway, but Indianapolis letting him go to an AFC South rival cannot land well with Colts fans. Tennessee has actually had quite the NFL offseason. They are better.

What Russini's intel suggests is the Chiefs had enough of a market for Sneed to get a favorable deal.

There is also another reason why the Chiefs decided to trade Sneed to that particular NFL team...

L'Jarius Sneed garnered real interest from at least four other NFL teams

To me, as soon as the Jones extension was signed, Sneed was as good as gone. We live in an NFL world with a hard salary cap. You can move the money around all you want, but at the end of the day, there is only so much money to spend, which is the point. That big payday is what cost Sneed a chance at a three-peat in Kansas City. There is a reason why the Chiefs traded him to the Titans: They aren't going to be a playoff team.

While I really liked what the Titans did this offseason, they are still probably the worst team in the AFC South. Even if everything goes according to plan for them in Nashville next year, do you think they are a top-seven team in the AFC? More likely than not, they feel like a bottom-12 team in the league for at least another year. This team is trending up, but the Chiefs want to take advantage of the draft capital.

As far as the Patriots and Vikings are concerned, they are probably entering somewhat of a rebuilding period. Minnesota's may only be for a year or two, whereas the Patriots could be bad for quite a while. Tennessee should be better this year, but what are the Colts doing exactly? Well, general manager Chris Ballard wants to run it back in the worst way possible. They have not win a division since 2014.

While the Chiefs and Titans both win in the Sneed trade, the biggest loser by far has to be the Colts.