4 pending 2024 free agents Chiefs fans should worry about losing

For Kansas City Chiefs players and coaches, there's only one concern on the horizon right now: their ability to defend their Super Bowl title during the 2023 season. For the front office, however, there's always one foot in the present and another in the future. Someone in the building at Arrowhead has to think about the big roster decisions looming down thte road and that's where general manager Brett Veach comes in.

For a team like the Chiefs, players with Super Bowl experience are often poached by less successful teams in order to import some intangibles that sound good in quotes. It's also true that many, many teams in the NFL have far more funds than the Chiefs to be able to retain their own players.

While all of these players are focused on the task at hand—winning!—fans can also know a few of them will be likely playing elsewhere next season. Here are a few players who are likely to sign elsewhere in 2024.

L'Jarius Sneed, DB

If you're just following the Chiefs roster building process on paper, then this move seems to be a year or more in the making—the loss of L'Jarius Sneed, that is.

A year before the Chiefs waved goodbye to Frank Clark, they drafted George Karlaftis. The same could be said of taking Patrick Mahomes in the draft a year before Alex Smith's departure, and even more recently, the second-round selection of Bryan Cook a year before allowing Juan Thornhill to leave. You get the picture.

This offseason, the Chiefs drafted two more defensive backs in Virginia Tech's Chamarri Conner, for whom they traded up in the fourth round, and Ball State's Nic Jones, taken in the seventh. Combined with the overload of young corners taken in last year's draft—from Trent McDuffie in the first round to Joshua Williams in the fourth to Jaylen Watson and Nazeeh Johnson in the seventh—the Chiefs have an abundance of young competitors in the mix.

For those watching the actual games, however, letting go of Sneed is not that simple. Apart from defensive tackle Chris Jones, it's possible to make a case fofr Sneed as the second-most valuable defender on this Chiefs defense. His versatility and well-rounded skill set make him Steve Spagnuolo's ultimate variable in the secondary, but it also means he's going to make a ton of money on the open market.

At this point, Sneed is not a secret to anyone in the know and it's likely another season like last one will bring true notoriety to the Louisiana Tech product just before he hits the open market.