Having vowed to Shawn Barber that his first visit would be his last visit, and that they would not let him to leave town without striking a deal, the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday made those promises count.

The Chiefs have signed the unrestricted free-agent linebacker, who was one of their top targets in the veteran talent pool. A five-year veteran, Barber played last year in Philadelphia, after spending the first four years of his career with the Washington Redskins.

Barber, 28, signed a seven-year contract worth $30 million and including a signing bonus of $5.5 million. In annual compensation, he will earn $700,000 (2003), $2 million (2004), $2.6 million (2005), $3.6 million (2006), $4.6 million (2007), $5.0 million (2007) and $5.55 million (2008).

He becomes the second member of a talented free-agent linebacker corps to go off the market. The Seattle Seahawks last week re-signed Anthony Simmons.

The loss of Barber is a blow to the Eagles, who could also see defensive end Hugh Douglas depart as a free agent later this week.

An athletic defender with all-around skills, Barber should be a key player for a Kansas City team rebuilding its linebacker corps. Kansas City has retained one of its own free agent linebackers, Mike Maslowski, and he will move to the middle linebacker spot this year.

Barber is likely to play the weakside linebacker position.

The former University of Richmond standout was expected to make several more visits, including a scheduled Monday meeting with St. Louis officials, but canceled those on Sunday. Agent Brian Mackler then flew into Kansas City to join his client and complete the agreement.

In his lone season with the Eagles, where he represented a major upgrade, Barber started all 16 games and had 91 tackles, a sack, two interceptions and 10 passes defensed. For his career, he has 299 tackles, four sacks, five interceptions and 21 passes defensed. Barber was a fourth-round choice of the Redskins in 1998 and then signed a one-year contract with the Eagles as a free agent last spring.

Toward the end of the season, it appeared Barber was likely to re-sign with the Eagles, but those talks broke down and he went onto the open market.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.