The Tennessee Titans have a lot of work to do this offseason. New head coach Robert Saleh and his coordinators, Brian Daboll and Gus Bradley, need to nail down the schemes they plan to use in 2026. Understanding how you plan to run the season helps you decide which players are the best fit for what you need. The problem lies with the salary cap, which makes it difficult to keep every player you want to keep.
Every year, teams lose out on talent because of the salary cap. The Athletic recently named one player from each NFL team who could be cut due to the salary cap. The player they chose for the Titans was veteran cornerback L’Jarius Sneed.
This is a 100 percent certainty. Former Titans GM Ran Carthon’s 2024 acquisition of Sneed for a third-round pick represents the worst of many bad moves in his brief tenure — and a fleecing on the part of the Kansas City Chiefs, who at the time employed the Titans’ current GM, Mike Borgonzi. He will rid the franchise of the mistake at a cap savings of $11.4 million, and get on to completely rebuilding the Titans’ corner group. Sneed has a degenerative knee, which didn’t take all the blame for his total of 12 games played in two seasons with the Titans, but clearly was a factor. A more difficult question for Borgonzi: Cut Calvin Ridley or not? That’s likely a yes as well.
In Sneed’s 12 games with the Titans, he recorded 49 tackles (37 solo), two tackles for a loss, and three pass deflections. Injuries have plagued his last two seasons, and the Titans desperately need to beef up their cornerback room.
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Aside from his lack of production and on-field appearances, Sneed’s attitude isn’t great, and his off-field legal issues can present a distraction. There are likely several reasons that Sneed won’t be back with the Titans in 2026, and the salary cap is only one of them.
This article originally appeared on Titans Wire: Titans’ L’Jarius Sneed named a potential salary cap cut