The Chiefs have a pair of top defensive players set to become unrestricted free agents next month in defensive tackle Chris Jones and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed.
During his Tuesday press conference at the scouting combine, General Manager Brett Veach admitted that having both of their contracts up at the same time is a “stress.” But the Chiefs are working to bring back both players.
“You’d like to be able to tag all the guys and pay all the guys,” Veach said. “It’s tough because the more you win, I mean, the more you’ve got to pay players. Obviously, when you have this amount of success, you’re paying a lot of players a lot of money. Then it’s equally as tough because you’re drafting late. So, there’s challenges. We’ll go through them and we’ll always put our best foot forward.
“Certainly want to do what we can to try to keep both those players. That’s going to be our goal and intent. Hopefully, we’re able to figure something out. But every free agency is unique, different, and crazy. We do have one tag. I anticipate probably using it to help us. But I think our goal is to get both of those players done and then work down the rest of our roster.”
Veach noted that he’ll be meeting with agents this week to start to get things rolling for both players. The G.M. added that Jones is “at the top of the list.”
“Love Chris and tried really hard to get something done and we didn’t,” Veach said. “But, when we got together right after that Detroit game, we had a great talk. And, you know, both parties, I think, want [Jones] to be here. So we’ll get to work. And that’s certainly a guy we want back and love and want to see him finish and end his career in Kansas City.”
