"Sneed for __________." What are some big swings the Chiefs could take?
There's been a lot of talk about Kansas City's franchise-tagged CB. I looked at a few aggressive moves Brett Veach could pursue in a trade.
One of the most fun parts of the NFL season is the opportunity to essentially participate in sports fan fiction.
Everything feels like it’s on the table when the offseason starts. There are endless potential moves to be discussed, debated, and ultimately discarded or dreamed about until time reveals what will actually happen. And who doesn’t enjoy dreaming a little bit? I’ve often felt like the most fun part of Madden franchise mode (in its previous iterations) wasn’t the games themselves, but the offseason. Wheeling and dealing and trying to find the best ways to improve (whether it’s via trade, draft, or free agency) was the highlight of the game, at least for weirdos like myself (and I presume some of you).
That’s one of the things that makes the “If I were Brett Veach” series so much fun. It’s an opportunity to let the imagination run wild and try to figure out a “best case scenario” for the team we all root for (that best case, of course, being a historic threepeat). I’ll be writing tomorrow as to what I would do in free agency if I were Veach.
But before I do that, I felt like talking through one issue that’s currently seeing the most headlines surrounding the Chiefs. And that’s franchise tagged cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, whom multiple teams have expressed an interest in per Nate Taylor (as revealed during the latest Only Weird Games, I might add). I’ve never known Nate to guess when it comes to the Chiefs, and so if he says 5 teams are interested, we can believe that 5 teams have expressed an interest.
So we know there’s a robust market for Sneed, even on a franchise tag. That’s to be expected, given he was one of the better cornerbacks in the NFL last season and was the type of player a defensive gameplan can be built around (see the Super Bowl for an example, as he and Trent McDuffie dominated their matchups). And we also know the Chiefs have a fantastic CB room, including the aforementioned McDuffie, and so are less willing to pay market value fora top CB. Hence, a trade makes sense.
With that in mind, I thought it might be a fun thought exercise to go through a few big swings Veach could take in the trade market if the Chiefs and Sneed aren’t able to come to a long-term contract agreement (which feels quite likely at this point). Keep in mind the basic premise of these “big swing” articles (I try to write one every offseason) is to pose an idea that seems a bit out there on the surface… and then I convince you (and myself) why it actually makes sense.
What’s the purpose? Well… it’s fun! And Veach has a unique opportunity to be creative in trying to address other holes in the roster in an aggressive way given the situation with Sneed. Some of the ideas are quite accomplishable (it’s a word!). Some of them might strain the boundaries of what is possible… but of course, this is part of the fun of the NFL offseason (imagining creative ways to alter the roster). That’s why they’re called “big swings,” after all!
Let’s dream big together.