In the past few years, there is no denying that the Kansas City Chiefs haven't had many mis-steps and have gotten the better of the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs. They have earned two Super Bowl championships in three of the past four seasons, including the last two.
However, even the defending Super Bowl champions are not impervious to mistakes and the way they handled the L'Jarius Sneed situation is a perfect example of that.
Sneed was set to be a free agent this offseason but the Chiefs elected to use the franchise tag on their starting cornerback. After agreeing to a new contract with Chris Jones, this was a logical move as it gave the Chiefs time to either work out a long-term deal with Sneed or find a way to trade him to another team.
Buffalo Bills fans are right to criticize the Chiefs for their trade of L'Jarius Sneed
On Friday night, it was reported that the Chiefs would be trading L'Jarius Sneed to the Tennessee Titans and in return would only receive a 2025 third round pick and a swap of 2024 seventh round picks. The fact that the Chiefs only received a third round pick, and a pick in next year's draft, makes this one of the more perplexing moves of the offseason.
The reason being that if the Chiefs let Sneed leave in free agency, they would have received that third round pick as a compensatory pick next year. They didn't gain anything outside of a swap of seventh round picks, which is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
On top of that, the Chiefs had to set aside almost $20 million in cap space to use the franchise tag on L'Jarius Sneed. That was money that could have been used to sign other free agents and while it is available now, most of the top tier free agents are signed.
If the Chiefs were only able to get that much back in a trade for their starting cornerback, it would have made more sense to keep him. The Chiefs are hoping to win three straight Super Bowls and there is no denying they have a better chance with Sneed on the roster.
In the end, this is only good news for a Buffalo Bills team that is hoping to get past the Chiefs in the playoffs and reach the Super Bowl for the first time since the early 1990s.