Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones wants a new contract. Jones, due to make $19.5 million in 2023, deserves a new contract. The Chiefs are surely willing to give him a new contract.
The overriding question is the value of the new contract.
The deals given to other defensive tackles this offseason (Jeffery Simmons, Quinnen Williams, Daron Payne, Dexter Lawrence, Javon Hargrave) fall in the range of $21 to $23.5 million annually. The leader at the position, Aaron Donald, averages more than $31.6 million per year. Jones, frankly, falls closer to Donald than the cluster of other great defensive linemen.
Jones is a dominant force. He had a huge role in the Super Bowl LIV win over the 49ers, harassing and hurrying 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo when it counted most. He had a huge role in the Chiefs getting to Super Bowl LVII, harassing and hurrying Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow when it counted most.
But the Chiefs have managed to get their two most important offensive players to be content with far less than they deserve. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, at $45 million per year, is now $7 million annually behind the top of the market, with Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, and Aaron Rodgers ahead of him — and Burrow and Justin Herbert likely to leapfrog him. Tight end Travis Kelce gets roughly half of what the best receivers are paid.
Both have apparently accepted their financial fate in the name of winning. (An adjusted Mahomes deal is expected before Week One.) The Chiefs surely hope to parlay that team-first, wins-over-wallet mindset into Jones doing the same thing. That would make it even easier to squeeze the rest of the veteran players into doing the same thing.
It doesn’t seem to be working, or Jones already would have signed his new contract. When it didn’t work with receiver Tyreek Hill, the Chiefs traded him. And it worked, because Mahomes not Hill makes the passing game go and because Hill had become a distraction to the offense, privately demanding the ball even more than he was getting it.
There is no similar way to replace Jones on defense. There’s no rotation or replacement for what Jones does.
And here’s the other important reality. Mahomes can play until he’s 40, or longer. Kelce is going strong in his almost-mid-30s. Jones, given the physically demanding position he plays, won’t be able to keep it going for as long. And he turned 29 earlier this month.
Now is the time to get what will be his last big payday, from the Chiefs or someone else. And to the extent that Mahomes and Kelce have set a precedent for taking less, the Chiefs have set a precedent for trading a key player who wanted more than the Chiefs offered.
That’s the wrinkle that doesn’t get discussed. Hill got out and got more. Does Jones want out, if the Chiefs won’t give him more?
The next step comes in two days, when camp opens for the Chiefs. Coach Andy Ried recently said he isn’t sure whether Jones will show up.
Although holdouts can be expensive and the daily fines can’t be waived for players not under rookie deals, it won’t be a surprise if Jones refuses to show up, as he surely targets not the $23.5 million that matches the second cut of defensive tackles but the $30 million barrier that Donald has surpassed.
He also could hold in, not practicing while negotiations continue. But if the impasse lingers and the clock on the preseason runs out, the team eventually wins.
Jones’s best way to get what he wants could be to refuse to show up until they give it to him.
