There’s less than a week remaining until the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Detroit Lions in the 2023 regular season opener, and we now know what Kansas City’s most recent contract offer is to All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio broke down what the Chiefs are willing to pay Jones, who has been holding out for a new contract since mandatory minicamp in June.
“Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Chiefs have offered to replace the $19.5 million that Jones is due to earn in 2023 with $74 million over the next three years. Of that amount, $70 million would be guaranteed for injury, with a lower amount fully guaranteed,” Florio wrote on September 2.
That type of deal would pay Jones $24.6 million annually, which would rank second in the NFL only behind Los Angeles Rams’ Aaron Donald, according to Over The Cap.
Per Florio, there’s a midway point between Donald’s deal and Kansas City’s deal that Jones is willing to accept.
“Jones, we’re told, isn’t trying to get to Donald’s number. In fact, he’d split the difference,” Florio wrote. “The midpoint between the team’s offer and the Donald deal is $28.17 million.
“In other words, instead of $95 million over three years (the Donald deal), Jones would take $84.5 million over three,” Florio continued.
Chiefs ‘Hopeful’ Chris Jones Returns for Week 1
Speaking to the media on August 30, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach was asked if the organization expects Jones — who was placed on the Active/Did Not Report list at the start of the regular season — to return to the team prior to Kansas City’s regular season opener.
“Listen, we’re certainly hopeful for that. We have been in communication, and actually just the last few days, we’ve been in more communication,” Veach said during his press conference. “We’re going to continue to press on and work hard. (There is) a lot of respect on both sides of this thing. It’s been obviously well stated how we feel about Chris (Jones), and he feels the same way. Again, we’re just going to keep working on this thing, and we’re looking forward to next Thursday and hopefully he’s in the lineup and he’s ready to go.”
Twitter Reacts to Chiefs’ Contract Offer
Users on Twitter — which was recently rebranded to “X” — reacted to Kansas City’s reported contract offer to Chris Jones.
“Don’t sell yourself short my friend, they paid Mahomes a bag, Kelce got a bag, they traded Tyreek so he could collect his bag, get your worth,” one user wrote.
@NFL_DovKleiman Don’t sell yourself short my friend, they paid Mahomes a bag, Kelce got a bag, they traded Tyreek so he could collect his bag, get your worth
“$84M over 3 years. $28m/yr is honestly a generous deal. Less than Donald but it keeps the chiefs from entering a Rams situation with tons of dead money and no cap space. Plus the cap is going to go up anyways. Veach just pay the man,” another user wrote.
@NFL_DovKleiman $84M over 3 years. $28m/yr is honestly a generous deal. Less than Donald but it keeps the chiefs from entering a Rams situation with tons of dead money and no cap space. Plus the cap is going to go up anyways. Veach just pay the man.
“74mil isn’t a good offer at all, even if we go by market Jones deserves 27mil/year at least,” another user wrote. “But chiefs are making it a lot worse here and not paying the dude they should even after saving all the money on Kelce and Mahomes. Even if they’ve to pay lil extra they should.”
@NFL_DovKleiman 74mil isn’t a good offer at all, even if we go by market Jones deserves 27mil/year at least. But chiefs are making it a lot worse here and not paying the dude they should even after saving all the money on Kelce and Mahomes. Even if they’ve to pay lil extra they should
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Insider Reveals Chiefs’ Massive Contract Offer to Chris Jones