Chiefs officially place franchise tag on Sneed

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The Kansas City Chiefs have officially placed the team’s franchise tag on cornerback L’Jarius Sneed.

The team announced the news Monday afternoon. According to several reports, Kansas City has permitted Sneed to discuss possible trades with other franchises while the team explores a multi-year extension for the soon-to-be fifth-year cornerback out of Louisiana Tech.

Sneed was an integral part of the Chiefs’ championship-winning defense during the 2023 season.

READ MORE: Chiefs prepare to franchise tag Sneed, explore trade possibility

The franchise tag tender for cornerbacks under the 2024 salary cap would be $19.8 million for one season. That $19.8 million cap hit will be attached to Sneed on the Chiefs’ salary cap unless the team trades him.

On Tuesday Feb. 26, at the NFL Scouting Combine, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said only having one franchise tag creates a heightened sense of urgency in negotiations as the team explores deals with Sneed and defensive tackle Chris Jones.

“Certainly. That’s always a stress, you’d like to be able to tag all of the guys and pay all of the guys. It’s tough because the more you win, the more you’ve got to pay players, and obviously when you have this amount of success, you’re paying a lot of players a lot of money,” Veach said. “It’s equally as tough because you’re drafting late. There are challenges.

“We’ll go through them, and we’ll always put our best foot forward. Certainly, want to do what we can to try to keep both of those players (Jones and Sneed). That’s going to be our goal and intent.”

In 2021, then Chiefs left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. played out the season on the franchise tag. No Chiefs player was put on the franchise tag last season.