Top Free Agent Fits For Chiefs DT Chris Jones

The No. 1 free agent on our board and probably most boards around the NFL, Chiefs DT Chris Jones is one of the best defensive players in the league.

He turns 30 this July but has shown zero signs of slowing down. Jones hit double-digit sacks for the second year in a row and was a first-team All-Pro selection. He had the second-most pressures of his career and was top-two in pass rush win rate for the fourth year in a row — and the year before that he was No. 3, the first year ESPN made the statistic publicly available. 

Players like Jones just don’t hit free agency. The only reason he’s available is because the Chiefs have been reluctant to meet his justifiably huge salary requirements. The two sides could still work something out to keep him but they’ve been trying since last summer. Kansas City can’t use the franchise tag to prevent him from reaching the open market this time. 

The divide between Jones and the Chiefs has been covered pretty thoroughly. In 2022, Rams DT Aaron Donald signed a deal that put him miles ahead of the rest of the market at the position at $31.6 million a year. Last year, the defensive tackle market exploded. Five players signed deals worth $21 million a year or more, with Jets DT Quinnen Williams landing at No. 2 at $24 million a year.

Jones and his agents were probably hoping that group would close the gap a little more, though. They weren’t asking to top Donald’s number, but they thought they deserved to be a lot closer to his salary than Williams. Jones held out all summer and through training camp and even through Week 1 of the regular season — a loss to the Lions — before the two sides came up with a compromise to get him back on the field. 

With another strong season under his belt, Jones hasn’t lost any negotiating leverage. In fact, after notching more sacks than Donald and with the huge jump in the salary cap, Jones has a legitimate case to be paid more than Donald and reset the market for defensive tackles. He might knock a couple million off the price for the Chiefs, but they probably need to put an offer on the table that they weren’t willing to last summer to keep him.

If they don’t, another team certainly will. 

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 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 sacks and four passes defended.

We have him listed in our Top 100 2024 NFL Free Agents list.

Texans

If Jones makes it to free agency, I would put the Texans as the No. 1 contender for his services. Houston is going to be chasing the Chiefs in the AFC, and what better way to close the gap than to poach their best defensive player? 

Texans HC DeMeco Ryans is a big believer in winning games in the trenches with his background from San Francisco. The 49ers poured resources into the defensive line almost to the point of overkill. Adding Jones would provide a massive upgrade over veteran DT Maliek Collins, who is a nice player but not in the same stratosphere. It would give the Texans an elite disruptor to pair with rising star DE Will Anderson. Houston’s attacking defense is also a terrific fit for Jones. 

From a resource standpoint, the Texans are currently fourth in the NFL in expected cap space this offseason, per Over The Cap. They have a long list of pending free agents to re-sign or replace but that still leaves them ample cap space to go after a star like Jones. From a long-term planning perspective, QB C.J. Stroud‘s rookie contract gives them a three-year window to be aggressive with moves like this before his bill comes due. 

Stroud is also a huge recruiting edge for free agents this offseason. Any other team Jones signs with is going to be a downgrade at quarterback, but Stroud looked like a future star who could lead Houston deep in the playoffs with a little more help. 

Bears

Bears GM Ryan Poles was in the Chiefs’ front office before taking his current job in Chicago, so he knows all about Jones and the type of impact player he could be. Bears HC Matt Eberflus has talked in the past about how the key to his system is a dominant three-technique defensive tackle who can cause havoc in the middle of the field. It’s why the Colts went out and traded for DT DeForest Buckner while Eberflus was still in Indianapolis. 

Chicago has tried to find an analog without much success. A deal with veteran Larry Ogunjobi was called off before he even played a snap due to a failed physical and the Bears got veteran DT Justin Jones as a stop-gap. Jones is one of the best three-techs in the sport, so it would be a home run signing. 

The Bears don’t have the most cap space in the league this offseason but they still have plenty to work with. They also have flexibility with a rookie quarterback (presumptively future No. 1 pick Caleb Williams) leading the team for the next few years. That would allow them to fit a massive contract for Jones alongside the huge deal they just gave to DE Montez Sweat. 

While the Bears just spent a pair of Day 2 picks last year on DTs Gervon Dexter and Zacch Pickens, frankly neither holds a candle to Jones yet. Apart from picking Williams, there’s no other move the Bears could make that would have more of an impact on their team in 2024 than signing Jones would. Super Bowl teams tend to have strong defensive line rotations anyway. 

Yes, I said Super Bowl. The Bears would still have a long way to go, but they have started to add quite a bit of talent in the last year and could be on the verge of getting a legitimate high-end quarterback. It’s not crazy to think they could be a playoff team with Jones elevating an already spunky defense. At least, that’s what the Bears are going to sell Jones. And he could definitely buy it. 

Browns

The Browns have come up as a team that is expected to be vigorous in its search for help at defensive tackle this offseason. While they only have a little over $5.6 million in cap space right now, that number could change dramatically. Restructuring more of QB Deshaun Watson‘s guaranteed contract could free up as much as $33 million. 

That would be plenty of space to fit in a deal for Jones. The bigger lift would be in future seasons. A deal for Jones would probably mean the end for some veterans in 2025, guys like WR Amari Cooper or G Joel Bitonio (just an example, not specifically). The Browns have quite a bit of money tied up into the top of their roster and at some point will need to rebalance. 

There’s an argument that signing Jones would be over-extending, but it would also be adding a major impact player to a defense that was already one of the league’s best last year. Jones and DE Myles Garrett would be an unblockable combination for most offenses. It would make the Browns legit postseason threats largely on the back of their defense, and help counterbalance any lack of progress from Watson and the offense. 

Chiefs

Two things matter most for players. Winning and money, and not usually in that order. But Kansas City is so good and Jones has been there for so long that if the Chiefs can get close with the money, they probably won’t have to be the highest bidder. There are a lot of knowns for Jones, including his fit in the system, not having to move and continuing to play on the same team as Patrick Mahomes. That should count for something, maybe a couple million somethings.