Raiders DE Chandler Jones Not Expected To Play Week 1

Raiders HC Josh McDaniels said he doesn’t expect DE Chandler Jones to play in Week 1’s game against the Broncos, per Paul Gutierrez. 

This comes after McDaniels told reporters earlier this week that Jones is not with the team. 

“It’s a personal situation and a private matter. We have dealt with it and I am not going to talk about it,” McDaniels said, adding they’ll take things a day at a time in regards to whether Jones plays in Week 1 against the Broncos. 

In since-deleted Instagram posts, Jones said he didn’t want to play for Las Vegas anymore, citing McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler as the reason. 

Jones claims the Raiders had been keeping him out of the team facility and making him work out at a local gym trying to “provoke” something. This week, the organization sent a crisis team manager to his residence to check on him. 

The veteran pass rusher was one of Las Vegas’ headline additions last year but was not as productive as the team envisioned. 

The Raiders already restructured Jones’ contract earlier this offseason, so trading him would likely be an overall net negative on their cap space. However, since he’s make just a minimum base salary, it could increase their odds of finding a buyer if things come to that. 

Jones, 33, is a former first-round pick of the Patriots back in 2012. He played out his four-year, $8.173 million contract before the Patriots picked up his fifth-year option back in April of 2015.

The Patriots elected to trade Jones to the Cardinals in 2016 for G Jonathan Cooper and a 2016 second-round pick. Arizona franchise-tagged Jones before signing him to a five-year, $82.5 million deal. 

Jones made a base salary of $15.5 million in 2021. The Cardinals declined to franchise Jones, which paved the way for him to hit the open market. He later agreed to a three-year, $51 million contract with the Raiders. 

In 2022, Jones appeared in 15 games for the Raiders and recorded 38 tackles, four and a half sacks, and one forced fumble.