Kansas City Chiefs: How much is too much for a Chris Jones extension?

The Kansas City Chiefs and defensive tackle Chris Jones are just better together. Both are good without the other, but the two together complete the other. It’s like bacon and eggs or quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Super Bowls. Jones and a big payday will be the new pairing soon after he took over as the league’s top defensive tackle last season. The question is will Kansas City make him the highest-paid player at his position?

On March 13, the Washington Commanders made Daron Payne the second-highest-paid interior defensive lineman in the NFL. His four-year, $90 million deal is worth $22.5 million annually, more than Jones, DeForest Buckner, and Leonard Williams. Payne is a great defensive tackle in his own right and reached his first Pro Bowl and recorded 11.5 sacks in the 2022 season. He and fellow Pro Bowler Jonathan Allen make for one of the league’s best interior tandems, albeit on the struggling Commanders.

A rising tide lifts all boats, though, and this contract comes at an opportune time for Jones.

The value of Jones

Jones surpassed Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald as the league’s top interior defender last year. He was good enough to be a consensus top-three defensive tackle in past years, but the 28-year-old Jones took another step forward. Jones led NFL defensive tackles in sacks and total pressures while tying for PFF’s top interior defender pass-rush grade in 2022.

Jones was also a vocal leader on the Chiefs’ defensive unit, and it is hard to imagine a Super Bowl win this year without him in a Chiefs uniform. He is still climbing Kansas City career leaderboards and could surpass Buck Buchanan as the franchise’s most productive defensive tackle. His 65 career sacks are eighth-most in Kansas City history and only 5.5 behind Buchanan.

After his seventh season with the Chiefs, Jones is making a solid case to be the league’s top-paid defensive tackle or at least a Chief for life. But, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach will break some contractual precedent to make that happen for Jones.

The Chiefs’ contractual precedents

Due to Hill’s contract demands, Veach surprised the NFL world by trading away wide receiver Tyreek Hill last offseason. In hindsight, the move did not affect Kansas City’s championship pursuit detrimentally, and Hill got his payday in sunny Miami. The Chiefs were not willing to handicap their team financially for a player outside of Patrick Mahomes.

Despite his importance, the team has even kept tight end Travis Kelce, the franchise’s most talented pass catcher, on relatively cheap deals. Veach does not have a long track record of handing out big-money contracts, at least ones that couldn’t be reworked in his favor. Jones’ next contract will certainly affect Kansas City’s financials for years.

While fans and this writer advocate making Jones the league’s richest defensive tackle, how much could that be, and would it be possible?

How much would Jones cost?

The Athletic’s Nate Taylor reported on March 2 two things: first, that Jones wanted to stay in Kansas City his entire career, and two, that Jones wanted to be at least the second-highest-paid defensive tackle in the NFL. All that comes after Jones won the 2022 AFC Defensive Player of the Year award, yet before Kansas City released Jones’ running mate, defensive end Frank Clark. Taylor’s reporting centered around the Chiefs retaining Clark and Jones, which seems unlikely.

“I definitely feel like we can be in position to compete again for another one,” Jones said following Super Bowl 57. “This is a special team. We keep this core together, keep Frank Clark, keep me and him together, I think we can be very, very special.”

I wonder if Veach would use pursuing Clark as a negotiation chip with Jones, trying to convince him that a smaller deal now could bring Clark back easier. That is purely speculation, though.

How Clark’s release will affect Jones’s wish to stay in Kansas City is uncertain, but there is a glimmer of hope for Chiefs fans. He tweeted on March 12, “I’m a Chief for life. I will not play for another franchise,” in response to the contract extension rumors. Social media is hardly a place where promises are made and kept, but Jones’ confidence in saying that is certainly a positive sign.

“The good thing for us is that we have these strong connections with these players that have played here a long time,” Veach said at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine. “They love being here. That’s a good starting point for us. The bonds that we have with these players, and the fact that we have a long track record with them, helps us buy more time.”

Veach wants Jones in Kansas City. Jones wants to be in Kansas City. What are the numbers to get a deal done fulfilling Jone’s wishes?

Five interior defenders have an annual contract value, or APY, surpassing $20 million: Donald, Jones, Payne, Buckner, and Williams. Jones is the only player out of that group to outplay his contract, according to Over the Cap. They valued his 2022 performance at $20,257,000, leading all interior defenders in the NFL. He and Mahomes were the only Chiefs players whose positional value exceeded $20 million, showing their importance to Kansas City’s championship aspirations.

If someone was looking at the Over the Cap charts, they might suggest paying Jones for his value in 2022. That could be a four-year deal worth $94 million. After all, that fulfills Jones’ wish to be the league’s second-highest-paid defensive tackle while giving Kansas City some cap flexibility this year.

However, Jones’ camp would be fair in asking for money closer to Donald’s than Payne’s. Donald’s deal has an APY of $31.6 million, with $65 million guaranteed. Spotrac values Jones’s 2022 performance closer to that, projecting he deserves a four-year deal worth $120 million. That would raise Jones to a $30 million APY and the 14th-highest-paid player in the NFL. The sticker shock is real, but that would keep Jones in Kansas City through his age-32 season and avoid a sharp decline similar to Donald’s.

That high contract is not out of the realm of possibilities and would undoubtedly make Jones’ representation happy. The Spotrac-projected deal is probably the highest Veach would go to make a deal happen. If the APY rises, Veach inflated the value somehow, as the Dolphins did with Hill’s contract, that deal would still get Jones his biggest payday and likely the last large contract of his career.

However, Jones himself must decide if he prioritizes team-building flexibility or his payday.

How flexible will Chris Jones be?

There is nothing wrong with a player getting paid what he is worth. After all, they are the ones sacrificing their bodies for the sport. There has to be an element of selflessness in a negotiation though if a player wants to build a perennial contender. Mahomes did it in 2020 when he signed a 10-year, $477 million contract extension. It was the largest sports contract ever at the time, but it opened up the cap flexibility Veach needed to also extend Jones on a four-year, $80 million deal. Signing Jones to a big contract this offseason does not remove Kansa City from other deals but opens them up for more. Leave it up to Veach to make the NFL salary cap seem nonexistent.

If Jones wants to stay in Kansas City, he wants to do so on a winning team. Jones trying to force a deal that takes up any cap flexibility does not help keep a winning team around him. that four-year, $120 million deal is too rich for keeping a winner around Jones. However, expect him to exceed the $100 million mark on overall contract value, or at least $25 million APY. The negotiations will be critical in Kansas City’s 2023 offseason, especially after the team signed offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor.

If the team wants to bring more players in or back this offseason, extending Jones now would be the best way to get it done. But Veach knows how not to get caught up in the moment. Jones has said he wants to stay in Kansas City. But putting pen to paper on a team-friendly deal proves he is a man of his word.