Getty Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones.
Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones is seeing a contract extension that makes him at least the second highest-paid player at his position according to The Athletic’s Nate Taylor on March 2.
Taylor gave another update on Jones’ extension talks with the Chiefs on May 17, this time getting yet again into specifics of a potential new deal between the two parties.
“Such a deal could be a three- or four-year extension, according to multiple league sources,” Taylor wrote.
Among the reasons the Chiefs were cap-strapped this offseason was Jones’ contract. He is in the final year of his four-year, $80 million deal with Kansas City and has a $28.2 million cap hit for the 2023 season according to Over The Cap.
The best way to lower his cap number for at least the 2023 season would be to hand Jones, 28, a contract extension, which would give him yet another payday but would also push his cap hits down the road. Kansas City would eventually have to address those cap hits as it has to this off-season under Jones’ current deal. But an extension would provide cap relief for the team for the next year or two.
That’s one of the reasons why a three- or four-year extension would be the best way for the Chiefs to give Jones an extension. Doing so could push his larger cap hits into 2024 and beyond, and could also put Kansas City in a situation where Jones is playing out the final prime years of his career with the Chiefs before he’s due for a new contract. That would then give the Chiefs more leverage when he’s due for his next contract, as that might happen when Jones is either 31 or 32 years old (depending on the actual length of his upcoming extension).
Chris Jones Deserves Extension After Career Year
Chris Jones is riding high off of a career year in Kansas City, which is why he is worth every penny he’s asking for in his next contract.
During the 2022 regular season, Jones registered career-highs in total quarterback pressures (50 QB hurries, 15 sacks, 12 QB hits) and stops (31) according to PFF. His 92.3 PFF defensive grade during the regular season was the highest among all interior defenders in the NFL, which snapped Aaron Donald’s eight-year streak of being the highest-graded interior defender in the NFL.
Arguably the best performance of Jones’ seven-year NFL career came during Kansas City’s AFC Championship victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in January. During that game Jones dominated by generating 10 total QB pressures (5 QB hurries, 3 QB hits, 2 sacks) and also had 3 stops.
The sack that sent the Bengals packing courtesy of Chris Jones! 👋
Chiefs Benefit As Well From Chris Jones Extension
Along with making Chris Jones happy, giving the All-Pro defensive tackle a contract extension would also benefit Kansas City financially.
Extending Chris Jones would help wipe out a good chunk of his $28.2 million cap hit in 2023, which in turn would give the Chiefs more spending money. That’s a win-win scenario for everyone involved, which is why it’s only a matter of time before it happens.
“That’s on the list of things to do,” Kansas City general manager Brett Veach said of a Chris Jones extension during his post-draft press conference on May 1. “We’ll spend time (on it) and obviously we have a great relationship with Chris and his (agents Jason Katz and Michael Katz). We’ll get to work and see what we can do. Those things usually take a little bit of time here, so we have a little bit of a runway now until the start of training camp to hopefully get something done.”