Latest On Chiefs’ Chris Jones Contract

For the second time in three years, the Chiefs reached agreements with their best offensive and defensive players. While 2020 brought extensions for Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones, this month featured notable contract adjustments.

While restructures are commonplace in today’s NFL, the Chiefs did more than that with Mahomes and Jones. Although neither’s contract length changed, the Chiefs afforded each the opportunity — in Mahomes’ case, a certainty — to collect more cash this year. For Jones, more clarity emerged on his now-incentive-laden season that will close out a four-year, $80MM contract.

The Chiefs tacked on incentives to Jones’ 2023 payout ahead of Week 2, bringing him back into the fold after a weekslong holdout. The $2MM playing-time incentive includes $1MM payouts each for a 35% and 50% defensive snap shares, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com notes. Regarding the sack-based incentives, Jones will collect $1.25MM by reaching 10 sacks and an extra $500K for a third 15-sack season.

Jones, 29, has never finished below a 50% snap share on defense in a season, going through just two campaigns (2019, 2021) in which he missed more than two games. In both years, Jones missed three contests. He is also the only pure defensive tackle to post two 15-sack seasons in the sack era, getting there in 2018 and 2022. Those two slates represent Jones’ only two double-digit sack efforts, pointing to the baseline sack escalator not being a certainty to hit. Despite debuting in Week 2, Jones is already at 2.5 sacks.

Although Jones received more than $2MM in nonwaivable fines for his holdout and was docked a $1.1MM game check, he will have a chance to recoup that money. Though, if he is unable to hit the sack-based incentive, the Chiefs would need to make another Super Bowl trip to do so. The previously reported first-team All-Pro and Defensive Player of the Year incentives only pay out if Kansas City also qualifies for Super Bowl LVIII.

As we’ve noted, Jones being tagged in 2020 makes it almost a non-starter for the Chiefs to re-tag him next year. Indeed, Schefter adds the Chiefs are not expected to cuff Jones in 2024, with that number expected to come in north of $32MM. Jones staying healthy will put him on track for a monster third contract. The dominant inside pass rusher had sought Aaron Donald-level money, and now that Nick Bosa raised the defensive ceiling to $34MM per year, it will be interesting to see how Jones fares if/when he hits the open market.

It is not out of the question the Chiefs huddle up and extend Jones — a prospect the impact defender has not ruled out — but considering how far apart the sides were this year, it is difficult to expect the team will be able to keep the perennial Pro Bowler from testing the market. The Chiefs will also be able to make better plans to replace Jones in 2024. While that will be a difficult effort, replacing him this year amid a holdout was a wildly unrealistic proposition. Kansas City’s defense has looked noticeably better with Jones available over the past two weeks.