Chiefs pending free agent DL Chris Jones drew some attention while at Wednesday’s Super Bowl parade when he said he doesn’t plan on leaving Kansas City.
“I ain’t going nowhere baby! I will be here next year, the year after and the year after,” per James Palmer.
Pro Football Talk inquired if that meant a deal between the Chiefs and Jones was imminent, and was told by a source, “No time soon.”
It’s probably wise not to hold Jones to his words from the parade, which were likely impacted by euphoria from the Super Bowl and other substances. The real test will come in the next few weeks when his agents and the Chiefs get down to dollars and cents.
The two sides were unable to agree to terms on a new contract last year and it resulted in Jones missing the first game of the season.
Jones did not secure a no-tag clause as a part of his reworked one-year deal that ended his contract holdout, but the tag would cost the Chiefs around $32 million, so it might not matter.
Last summer, both sides agreed Jones deserved to be the second-highest-paid defensive tackle in football. But there was a sizable gap between Rams DT Aaron Donald at No. 1 and the field, and Jones and the Chiefs could not agree on where to slot him in between.
Jones, 29, is a former second-round pick of the Chiefs back in 2016 out of Mississippi State. He played out the final year of his four-year, $6.231 million contract and made a base salary of $1.19 million in the final year of the agreement.
The Chiefs franchised Jones before eventually signing him a four-year, $85M extension that included $60 million guaranteed.
Jones just finished the final year of that deal and was set to make a base salary of $19.5 million in 2023 when he held out through Week 1. The team gave him $6.75 million in incentives in order to end his contract holdout.
In 2023, Jones appeared in 16 games for the Chiefs and recorded 30 total tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 10.5 and four passes defended.
We have him listed in our Top 100 2024 NFL Free Agents list.
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