Sneed is currently two years into a four-year contract negotiated with the Titans\u00a0following a trade to Nashville by the Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0in 2024. The Chiefs secured a third-round pick from Tennessee in exchange for Sneed, who had received the franchise tag by K.C. general manager Brett Veach. That allowed the Chiefs some level of control over Sneed\u2019s future, and the Titans, at the time, were happy to pay for Sneed\u2019s services.<\/p>\n
The Titans\u2019 hope is that Sneed would help to reinvent a soft secondary that needed the sort of lockdown presence he\u2019d provided the Chiefs pass defense during championship runs during his four seasons with the team. However, Sneed had health issues from the outset and things only spiraled out of control from there.<\/p>\n
To date, Sneed has played in an average of 6 games per season for the Titans after\u00a0dealing with quad and knee injuries\u00a0that limited him for long stretches in both 2024 and 2025. Even when on the field, however, Sneed\u2019s presence wouldn\u2019t be described as incredibly impactful. Instead, the Titans have lived with buyer\u2019s remorse for most of the marriage.<\/p>\n
In addition to the four paths his offensive-coordinator\u00a0decision could take, Path No. 5 has yet to surface \u2013 although it might be rocketing like a missile launched from a submarine.<\/p>\n
Matt LaFleur has won 79 games in seven seasons (2019-25) as Packers head coach. But Green Bay dropped a 31-27 playoff game in disappointing fashion on Saturday night, blowing a 21-3 lead. And with John Harbaugh getting ready to kick off a week of serious interviews, the Packers may want to enter the fray.<\/p>\n
If that happens and the Packers do move on from LaFleur, Reid\u2019s patience could be rewarded. The Chiefs head coach said Monday he wasn\u2019t in a hurry to make any moves regarding his offensive coordinator, noting he had internal and external candidates.<\/p>\n
And if LaFleur becomes an external candidate for Reid, that likely won\u2019t happen for a few weeks. LaFleur certainly would interview for many of the vacant head-coach roles before settling for offensive-coordinator openings.<\/p>\n
9. Chiefs<\/p>\n
Caleb Downs, S, Ohio State<\/p>\n
S Bryan Cook could leave in free agency, and if you know defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, he\u2019d be pounding the table for this culture-changer impact defender.<\/p>\n
Allen, meanwhile, showed his toughness. He twice ended up in the medical tent in the first half but didn\u2019t miss a snap. He was hammered in the head twice during one play, with Josh Hines-Allen landing on the side of his helmet right after teammate Travon Walker tackled him to the ground. Allen\u2019s left ear appeared to be bleeding, but he got checked out and returned to the field.<\/p>\n
Allen later slammed his right hand into the helmet of right guard O\u2019Cyrus Torrence after releasing the ball. And he completed the injury trifecta when his left leg was bent awkwardly on his two-yard TD run. Allen stayed on the ground following that last hit and gingerly walked to the sideline and back into the tent. But, as usual, he powered through and was back on the field making plays.<\/p>\n
The Bills had been 0-5 on the road in the playoffs under coach Sean McDermott, starting with a 10-3 loss at Jacksonville in the 2017 wildcard round. The Bills had dropped eight consecutive postseason games on the road since winning at Miami in the 1992 AFC championship game. It had been the NFL\u2019s second-longest, active road playoff skid.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing Kittle early in the game was obviously a depressing play for everybody when you see that, and guys stepped it up and still made plays and competed,\u201d Shanahan said.\u201d To find a way to win that game, we thought it would be a grind-it game, that\u2019s how we say it, and it was. Our defense allowed it to be that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The seven-time Pro Bowler was being tackled by safety\u00a0Marcus Epps\u00a0toward the sideline when his calf appeared to pop as he planted it in the ground. He went down and received medical attention before being helped onto a cart.<\/p>\n
Quarterback\u00a0Brock Purdy\u00a0and other teammates tapped Kittle on the helmet as he was carted into the locker room, reminiscent of the last time these two teams met in the postseason and Purdy suffered an early elbow injury.<\/p>\n
Vrabel took the hit in stride, even going back to Williams to excitedly show the player the blood on his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about being willing to spill blood out there,\u201d Vrabel\u00a0said in his postgame news conference.\u00a0\u201cMilton took that to heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vrabel got the cut cleaned up on the sideline and went about his business, standing outside the locker room and greeting every player, coach and team staffer to walk through the door.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time this season that Vrabel has been bloodied.\u00a0In early August,\u00a0during a training camp joint practice with the Washington Commanders, Vrabel jumped into a dogpile to break up a fight among players. He suffered a minor cut on the cheek.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should see the other guy,\u201d Vrabel quipped to one player.<\/p>\n
1. Move on from expensive veteran contracts<\/p>\n
The Chiefs need to be aggressive this offseason, and that may require difficult decisions involving veteran starters. These players have not necessarily underperformed, but the financial savings gained by moving on from their contracts could outweigh their on-field value.<\/p>\n
The most likely cap casualties include right tackle Jawaan Taylor, linebacker Drue Tranquill and defensive end Mike Danna.<\/p>\n
Taylor is scheduled to make $27 million in 2026, but releasing him would leave only $7 million in dead cap, creating $20 million in savings. His tenure in Kansas City has been uneven, and with Jaylon Moore returning in 2026, moving on may be the prudent choice.<\/p>\n
Danna carries a cap hit north of $11 million in 2026, but releasing him would result in just $2 million in dead cap. While he has been a solid role player, his production no longer aligns with the cost of his contract.<\/p>\n
Tranquill is set to earn more than $7 million in 2026, with roughly $1 million in dead cap. Given his age and the team\u2019s broader needs, the Chiefs may be better served reallocating those resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sneed is currently two years into a four-year contract negotiated with the Titans\u00a0following a trade to Nashville by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[2644,35570,613,346,5680,2893,7,41,212,11587,3503,1829,118,110,2438,2437,7148,3031,216,14887,6,12611,428,3713,526,1866,4045,1827,111],"class_list":["post-671438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-brock-purdy","tag-bryan-cook","tag-caleb-downs","tag-chiefs","tag-demarcus-robinson","tag-drue-tranquill","tag-football","tag-green-bay","tag-jacksonville","tag-jawaan-taylor","tag-jaylon-moore","tag-josh-hines-allen","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascitychiefs","tag-kittle","tag-matt-lafleur","tag-miami","tag-mike-danna","tag-nfl","tag-offensive-coordinator","tag-packers","tag-sneed","tag-tennessee","tag-the-chiefs","tag-the-titans","tag-travon-walker","tag-washington-commanders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115882277201995140","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}