The picture for locking up L'Jarius Sneed for a long-term contract just became a lot clearer. That's because the Chicago Bears served up a new going rate for a young corner coming into his own just as he hits the open market.
Just like Sneed and the Kansas City Chiefs, Johnson and the Bears were locked into a similar situation as a young cornerback given the franchise tag by a franchise that didn't want to lose him—at least for nothing—to free agency.
Both the Chiefs and Bears applied the tag on Johnson and Sneed respectively in hopes of either buying more time to negotiate a long-term deal or find a trade partner in the process.
On Thursday afternoon, the Bears and Johnson finally reached a middle ground on a deal that will pay him up to $76 million over the next four seasons with over $54M guaranteed.
The Chicago Bears provided the parameters on a new cornerback deal this offseason with their Jaylon Johnson contract.
A quick profile of Johnson shows how similar the cases feel. Johnson is coming out of his rookie contract after having been the team's second-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Johnson locked down an immediate starting role with the Bears but was never really that effective until this season. Even last year, Johnson struggled to transition to Matt Eberflus's defense and he only played in 11 games due to a broken finger.
Sneed was much more effective for the Chiefs for the full duration of his rookie deal after being selected in the fourth round out of Louisiana Tech. However, as good as Sneed was last year, Johnson earned the acclaim that failed to come Sneed's way with the All-Pro and Pro Bowl mentions. It's possible to say those two could cancel the other out which makes this contract a good measuring stick for Sneed.
At this point, then, most NFL teams will know approximately what it will take to lock up Sneed but the Chiefs will as well. Would Brett Veach offer Sneed the same deal? Should he? Will Veach hold out for more? Does he have the body of work to demand it?
These are all questions that will be answered soon enough, but for now, Johnson's new contract gives us some solid parameters to understand what L'Jarius Sneed will cost someone this offseason.