Ex-Chiefs Exec Tried to Poach Chris Jones from KC: Report

Getty Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones.

Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach has already made it clear that the Chiefs do not intend to trade All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones amid his contract holdout. But that didn’t stop former Chiefs executive and current Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles from trying to acquire Jones.

According to Todd Fuhrman of Bet The Board podcast, Chicago has inquired about the availability of Jones.

“I’m not insinuating a trade is coming but the Bears have called about Chris Jones because they want to be all in on Justin Fields’ rookie contract. Let’s see what transpires here,” Fuhrman said during the August 24 episode of the podcast.

The Bears reaching out to the Chiefs regarding Jones makes a lot of sense given the ties. Former Kansas City executive director of player personnel, Ryan Poles, became Chicago’s general manager in 2022. That means if there’s anyone in the Bears front office that understands the value Chris Jones brings to a team, it’s Poles.

On top of that, the Bears have $9.4 million in available cap space in 2023 — 6th-best in the NFL per Over The Cap — and a whopping $89.4 million in 2024, which is 2nd-best in the league. That gives Chicago the room to trade for and then sign Jones to a deal that he wants, which is a multi-year, $30 million-per-year deal, according to The Athletic’s Nate Taylor.

But in the end, Chris Jones wasn’t on the trade block, and Ryan Poles did his due diligence as the Bears GM by reaching out to the defending Super Bowl champions.

Brett Veach Talks Chris Jones Holdout

Speaking to The Kansas City Star’s Jesse Newell for an article published on August 7, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach spoke about Jones’ holdout for the first time since it began in June when he skipped the team’s mandatory minicamp.

“He’s a great player, and he wants a big contract. He deserves a big contract, and I don’t think there’s any surprises in that regard,” Veach told Newell. “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.”

Veach noted that Kansas City opted to not give Tyreek Hill the contract he wanted in 2022 and in turn traded him to the Miami Dolphins because the Chiefs were planning for an extension with Jones. Veach also made it clear that trading Jones isn’t an option at this time.

“I think for all parties, I think the best resolution would be for him to end his career as a Chief — and get that financial security — and for us to do what we had set out to do, and that’s to work through last offseason with this offseason in mind and get some young guys, which we did that, and then focus on this year and getting Chris done,” Veach said. “Hopefully, we get this resolved, but we have no intentions of making a trade.”

Despite optimism from the Chiefs that they will strike a new deal with Jones, according to head coach Andy Reid on August 23, there has been “no communication” between Kansas City and Jones as of late.

“There’s been no communication, so I don’t know what’s gonna go (on) there,” Reid said during his Wednesday press conference. “But whatever happens, happens. If you’re not there, the game goes on, right? That’s how it works.”

Andy Reid: Starters Might Play ‘a Little Bit’ in Preseason Finale

Kansas City’s preseason finale will be against the Cleveland Browns on Saturday, August 26 at 12 p.m. Central time.

During his press conference on Wednesday, Big Red discussed how much playing time the starters will get in the final preseason outing.

“Yeah, so the ones (starters) might get a little bit of time. I’m still working through that,” he said. “The ones will probably get a little bit of time and then the twos and threes will take it from there.”