What is the Chris Jones contract situation? How much money does the Chief’s DE want?
The Kansas City Chiefs continue to prepare for the 2023 regular season, but they are doing so without veteran defensive tackle Chris Jones.
In less than a week, the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs will kick off their 2023 season against the Detroit Lions. They will do it, however, without the talents of defensive lineman Chris Jones.
Coming off his career best season in 2022, Jones racked up 44 tackles and 15.5 sacks, finishing third in the Defensive Player of the Year voting. Entering the final season of his $80 million contract, he now is holding out for a new one. One that is more befitting his idea of his value to the team.
By holding out, Jones has already missed out on over $1 million due to a daily fine of $50,000 for not showing up to practice. When asked by the local media outlet about this hefty price tag, Jones responded “I can afford it.”
Looking for a contract with an annual value close to Aaron Donald’s $31.6 million, it seems that the dispute is not that he deserves it, but how to make it happen. The second-highest paid defensive lineman in the league is Qunnen Williams at $24 million per year. Jones feels that he should sit between these two numbers.
The Chiefs GM Brett Veach seems to agree with him. “He’s a great player, and he wants a big contract,” Veach said, via the Kansas City Star. “He deserves a big contract, and I don’t think there’s any surprises in that regard. But there’s just some hurdles we have to work through in regards to how we can keep this thing going for the short and long term. But we’ve never wavered on, ‘This is a guy that we want to exhaust all of our efforts to get done,’ because that’s how much we think of him.”
Reports out by the Athletic are that the two sides are not far away from a deal and that the Chiefs are hopeful that they will have Jones in their opening day lineup.