Getty Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones.
The floor for Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones’ contract demands have been known for several months now, since The Athletic’s Nate Taylor reported on March 2 that Jones wants to be “at least” the second highest paid player at his position.
Taylor also reported on July 23 that Jones was seeking an extension that pays him $30 million annually.
On August 10, Taylor revealed the line the Chiefs have drawn in terms of how much they are willing to pay their All-Pro defender.
“The Chiefs, according to a league source, are unwilling to make Jones the league’s highest-paid defensive tackle,” Taylor wrote. “The franchise, which has played in three of the last four Super Bowls, winning two, doesn’t have a single player who is the league’s highest paid at his position.”
The highest-paid defensive interior lineman in the NFL based on average annual salary is Los Angeles Rams’ Aaron Donald at $31.6 million per year, according to Over the Cap. The New York Jets’ Quinnen Williams is the highest paid at that position based on total contract value ($96 million) and total guarantees ($66 million).
Brett Veach on Chris Jones: We Want to Exhaust All Options
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.”
Twitter Reacts to Nate Taylor’s Report
Users on Twitter — which was recently rebranded to X — reacted to Taylor’s August 10 report.
“The sad part about this side of the business is that if the Chiefs come up short on any game, including the Super Bowl, people will point to this and blame Chris for being a distraction. Right or wrong it will happen and I hate it for him and the team,” one user wrote.
@ByNateTaylor The sad part about this side of the business is that if the Chiefs come up short on any game , including the Super Bowl, people will point to this and blame Chris for being a distraction. Right or wrong it will happen and I hate it for him and the team
“BV (Brett Veach) has one of the best poker faces in the league,” another user wrote. “I’m still convinced that he would rather Chris play out this deal and then tag and trade him next summer. He just has no track record of giving huge deals to older players.”
@ByNateTaylor BV has one of the best poker faces in the league. I’m still convinced that he would rather Chris play out this deal and then tag and trade him next summer. He just has no track record of giving huge deals to older players.