Kansas City Chiefs News & Rumors

The Chiefs’ title defense begins on Thursday, but it remains to be seen if they will have Chris Jones available for Week 1 or any point early in the campaign. Plenty of progress still needs to be made for an agreement to be reached between team and player in this situation.

Jones, who has one year remaining on his current pact and is due a base salary of $19.5MM in 2023, has been absent from the team throughout the offseason. That has resulted in a major accumulation of fines during the summer and the chance of just over $1MM in missed game checks per week if he continues to hold out. Jones, 29, has previously suggested he is willing to remain on the sidelines until Week 8, the latest point at which he can return to the field with a year of service time accruing.

Talks on an new deal have have ramped up recently, and the team remains confident that one will be worked out to some point. As NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports, however, the sides are still at an impasse and Jones is therefore absent for today’s practice. That points further to the the All-Pro being sidelined for the season opener and adding to his financial penalties. Jones has already racked up approximately $2MM in fines and missed out on a $500K workout bonus, and little clarity exists with respect to when he will be back in the fold.

Confirming the uncertainty on the team’s part, head coach Andy Reid said, “You’re never sure how it’s going to work out. You deal with too many people in this type of thing. These things can go any direction. I don’t want to spend too much time on it. We had 90 guys in the offseason that I was making sure were going in the right direction, and now we’re getting ready to play a game. That’s how I go about it” (h/t Dave Skretta of the Associated Press).

Jones has been seeking a deal similar (if not larger) in value to Aaron Donald‘s market-resetting extension signed last offseason. The $31.67MM AAV of that pact comfortably exceeds what the numerous extension-eligible DTs landed in recent months on their own deals, and the Chiefs are reportedly willing to offer Jones a contract which would place him in the vicinity of the other second-tier earners at the position. The four-time Pro Bowler, by contrast, is thought to be seeking a deal putting him behind only Donald in the pecking order.

In an informative breakdown of the situation, Over the Cap’s Jason Fitzgerald details the fact that the value of extension offers depend on whether or not they are viewed through the lens of new money or strictly total compensation including what is already owed. In Jones’ case, the former approach (which is standard in the NFL) yields an AAV of $27.5MM regarding the Chiefs’ reported three-year offer and a figure of $32.5MM per year with respect to the counter-offer of the same length.

Kansas City’s defense will look much different on the interior presuming Jones does indeed miss regular season action in 2023. Time has likely run out for Week 1 participation at this point, but his negotiations on an extension will no doubt remain a talking point well after Thursday’s contest if no deal is reached.

Despite Travis Kelce making a public plea for Chris Jones to return to the Chiefs, the star defensive tackle continues his holdout. Jones has reportedly been pushing for a contract that would approach or exceed Aaron Donald‘s $31.67MM average annual value. The Chiefs have reportedly countered with a contract that would pay him in the $22.5-$24MM range, similar to the contracts signed by Daron Payne, Jeffery Simmons, Dexter Lawrence and Quinnen Williams this offseason.

[RELATED: Chiefs DT Chris Jones Hints At Extended Holdout]

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com has more insight into, and it sounds like Kansas City’s offer is a bit higher than those second-tier DT salaries. A source tells Florio that the organization is offering Jones a three-year, $74MM deal that would wipe out the $19.5MM the player is set to earn in 2023. $70MM of that money would be guaranteed for injury.

That would come in around a $24.67MM AAV. Florio writes that Jones would be willing to split the difference between the offer and Donald’s contract at around $28MM per year. So, that means there’s around a $10MM total difference in value between the two offers (a hypothetical three-year, $74MM offer from the Chiefs vs. a three-year, $84MM request from Jones).

There’s no true deadline for the two sides to agree to an extension, but the defensive tackle has hinted that he could sit out until Week 8 if he doesn’t receive a new deal. In that scenario, Jones would be facing significant fines.

It sounds like the Chiefs are preparing to be without Jones, who finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting after compiling 15.5 sacks in 2022. Still, that hasn’t stopped teammates from pushing for his return. Kelce admitted during his recent podcast that he doesn’t understand the player’s hold out while pleading for the pass-rusher’s return.

“Chris, can you please come back?” Kelce said (via ESPN’s Adam Teicher). “You’re really scaring me, man. I don’t get it. You must know something that I don’t know because I just don’t get it. I really want to get another Super Bowl ring with you, brother. This is me bargaining you to just come back and play football for the Chiefs. Please, we need you. We need you bad, and I don’t know what the situation is.”

Meanwhile, head coach Andy Reid finally addressed Jones’ absence, telling reporters that he won’t criticize the player’s decision to hold out.

“Chris has chosen to go this route,” Reid said on Friday (via Teicher). “Some other guys have chosen to get their deals done and come in and play. I’m not here to criticize one way or the other. We’ve had a lot of success with the guys that we have, and we go with it.

“Other than that, I take the distractions and throw them out the door and let’s get on with what’s real.”

The Chiefs open the season on Thursday against the Lions. Unless the two sides can make up significant ground in negotiations, the Chiefs will be without their defensive leader for the start of their Super Bowl defense.