Chris Jones is coming off his best season in Kansas City, helping the Chiefs win their second Super Bowl title and earning a First Team All-Pro Selection for the Second Time in his career. With Stone Cold set to hit free agency in 2024, when should the Chiefs extend him?
Defensive Tackle Chris Jones is coming off his best season as a Kansas City Chief, Jones totaled 15.5 sacks and 40 total tackles in 2022. Although the season started out rough, he led the NFL in roughing the passer penalties early on in the season but was extremely clutch throughout the season. Jones led the league in fourth quarter and overtime sacks and QB hits, helping him earn first-team All-Pro honors and finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year Voting. Jones is owed around $28M this upcoming season and will be hitting free agency in 2024, the biggest question in Kansas City is when should the Chiefs extend the veteran defensive tackle.
According to reports, Jones wants to be one of the highest-paid defensive tackles in the league and the Chiefs would want to work on getting his number down this upcoming season to defend their second Super Bowl title in four seasons. The number might be too steep for the Chiefs, however, extending him under his current contract would lower the cap hit and give the Chiefs more money back this off-season to make a few more moves before training camp starts. Spoctrac is predicting Jones will receive a 4-year extension that is worth up to $120M, making him the highest-paid defensive tackle in the history of the league, he might get that contract, but probably not in Kansas City.
With the Chiefs’ current cap space that seems quite impossible and the new contract would have to include the guarantees he would receive some or most of that money in signing bonuses. With a more team-friendly restructure for 2023, the Chiefs could move Jones to get some players via trade, like DeAndre Hopkins. Keep in mind over the past weekend, Jones was pitching to the star WR about why he should consider choosing KC in a trade with the Arizona Cardinals, but it seems like KC will be content in drafting a WR or signing Hopkins if he gets cut.
After restructuring the Mahomes contract, it cleared $9.6M in cap space for Kansas City, totaling their cap space to $17M and they were able to add good defensive additions by signing Defensive End Charles Omenihu, Linebacker Drue Tranquill, and Safety Mike Edwards in free agency. The Chiefs would like to get the deal done and it seems like Jones wants to stay in Kansas City for the rest of his career.
It seems like the Chiefs will try to get it done post-draft so they can possibly make more moves up to the start of Training Camp. It makes no sense for the Chiefs to trade a future Hall of Fame defensive tackle at this point in his career, and it’s time to be patient in Kansas City as everyone wants to keep Stone Cold for the foreseeable future.
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