Chris Jones will not be reaching the market. The three-time Chiefs Super Bowl winning defensive tackle has been retained on a monster extension, as first reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The deal is five years in length and includes a staggering $95MM in guaranteed money, ESPN’s Adam Schefter notes. 
Jones’ agency has since confirmed the move, which will ensure his Kansas City tenure continues and add considerably to his career earnings. The five-time Pro Bowler was on track to be the top prize amongst defenders in free agency, but the Chiefs made consistent efforts recently to retain him. That has now taken place, with the agreement shattering the record for guaranteed compensation at the D-tackle spot.
Schefter clarifies Jones will receive the $95MM figure – which is guaranteed – over the first three years of the pact. That $31.67MM average matches the AAV mark set by Aaron Donald on his historic Rams extension, but it far outpaces the $46.5MM guaranteed which Donald’s deal includes. The deal is still being ironed out, per Schefter, but once finalized it will move Jones to the top of the DT pecking order.
The 29-year-old had been seeking a deal in the $30MM-per-year range, and he has indeed landed it. Jones was always Kansas City’s top free agent priority, despite a younger defensive stalwart (cornerback L’Jarius Sneed) also being in need of a new deal. The latter has been franchise-tagged, but it remains to be seen if he will be retained or traded to avoid a 2025 free agent departure. Regardless of what happens in the team’s secondary, Kansas City’s defensive front will remain strong given Jones’ continued presence.
Earning first-team All-Pro honors in each of the past two seasons, Jones has not slowed. The Mississippi State product has totaled 26 sacks over the that span in the regular season, adding 2.5 in the postseason. Game-changing plays in the playoffs have remained a fixture for Jones, as he as contributed immensely to the Chiefs’ dynasty construction. Given his durability (multiple missed games in only two seasons), a long-term investment could be less risky from the team’s perspective than most others with players his age.
Kansas City has seen head coach Andy Reid commit to playing at least one more season (and likely more) in an offseason after Patrick Mahomes had his own mega-deal restructured. Jones agreeing to a re-up means all three pillars of the Chiefs’ core will be intact moving forward. In the latter’s case, it comes with the added benefit of avoiding a repeat of the holdout which began the 2023 regular season.
Jones remained out of the lineup through Week 1 this past campaign, missing out on a game check in addition to fines incurred from missed training camp time. He and the team worked out a one-year deal laden with incentives, but hammering out another multi-year pact was an obvious priority for team and player. Working one out before free agency was the expectation of many around the league, and to no surprise Jones has landed a raise from the four-year, $80MM pact he inked in 2020.
As of Saturday, the two-time defending champions sat at just $1.2MM in cap space, a figure which of course did not include Jones given his pending free agency (although he will account for $3.4MM in dead money with his previous deal already having voided). The structure of the guaranteed payouts – along with whatever compensation is included in Years 4 and 5 – will be interesting given the importance of Kansas City maintaining cap flexibility in the immediate future.
The team is expected to devote finances to the offensive side of the ball (aside from this historic Jones agreement, of course) this offseason. That comes as no surprise given Kansas City’s inconsistency relative to its defense in 2023. Jones will remain an anchor of DC Steve Spagnuolo‘s unit for the foreseeable future, though, something which will have a ripple effect around the league next week.
Jones coming off the board leaves a major vacancy at the top of the DT market. Christian Wilkins is now positioned as the best player at the position on track to land a deal with an outside suitor. In the short term in Wilkins’ case, as well as the long term given the upward financial trajectory along the defensive interior, this Jones deal will keep moving the bar higher in terms of both annual and guaranteed compensation.
Great news!
To echo Mark Schlereth on McAfee, that’s some serious Charmin.
Retiring as a Chief if he plays out the contract. He is a dominate force and will likely still have an impact on the field when he ages.
hey richard, this is your dad. how bout them chiefs?
Hell yeah, that’s great news for Chiefs Kingdom.
Cant Stop, Wont Stop
What about consent? You’re canceled!!!
Bruh I’m convinced cap don’t exist lol
It does. Chiefs have money tied into
Mahomes
Kelce
Jones
Outside of them they have guys on rookie contracts
Gay
Bolton
McDuffie
Karlarfis
Rice
Humphreys
Smith
They’ve hit on a lot of draft picks and developed them well especially on defense.
But that’s how you build a contender
Franchise QB
Couple cornerstones on offense and defense
Supplement with productive rookie contracts and low cost high reward veterans
And Taylor, Thuney, Reid, Sneed, Omenihu.
With Jones deal they’ll be over the cap so Sneed is likely gone along with Omenihu.
Agree, and with so much money in three key players, spreading that cap will get harder every year. Unless they fill the roster with all the cheap Toneys that get cast off from other teams
For some reason I think this is the best year to draft at least two wideouts to help out rice and Mahomes. Imagine chiefs with Xavier worthy and Brendan rice
As a UT fan; Worthy will make you as mad as he will happy. All the speed in the world but those hands leave something to be desired.
Contrary to what many KC fans think, this is why Sneed is gone as well. You can’t have that many big contracts with a QB having a 55-60 million cap hit. Sneed is a 19 million cap hit. That can’t stand for this coming season.
With cap carryover and multiple void years, the cap does not exist.
Bingo lol
Committing 95 million to a 29 year old DT trench guy! Wow. This will be a contract that will hamstring them in coming years. The guy is a great game changer but that’s a lot of money dedicated to 1 person that is 29 years old. Not a chiefs fan, but I am also happy for this. Only because they will regret this contract in 365 days … at next years free agency.
Possibly, but we also heard that same sentiment regarding Mahomes’ contract two Super Bowl wins ago.
The structure of the deal leaves KC with some flexibility. Front loading all the guaranteed money in the first three years allows for restructures to push some back to the last two years. Or if they can stomach the cap hits the first three years they can drop him with minimal repercussions those last two years.
What a laughably bad deal for a lazy, pass rusher only. This one will not end well.
He always plays extra hard when a deal’s on the line. Now watch them get three years of Deshawn Watson play (injured or subpar efforts)
They must not have much faith in their scouting department
No scouting department can be relied on to just replace Chris Jones.
It’s a lot of money, but he’s been the second best interior rusher of his era and the best defensive player on three super bowl teams, including two winners. Hard to quibble with paying the man.
The cap is crap