George Karlaftis: 'Bit of a void' without Chris Jones

The Kansas City Chiefs continue to sit at odds with defensive tackle Chris Jones as the team's training camp creeps toward the beginning of its second week. What looked like a sure thing in terms of a long-term contract extension has turned into more questions than answers at this stage, although a deal is still very much a possibility for both sides.

Jones continues his holdout from Chiefs training camp at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri, and his teammates are admitting that they can feel the difference.

The absence of Chris Jones due to a holdout has the players feeling the void, too, in Chiefs training camp.

When speaking to reporters from camp, Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis was asked about the situation between the team and Jones. Karlaftis said, “[He was] one of the best, if not the best defensive player last year, so there is a little bit of a void there. We try to fill it as a collective we have guys that have played a lot of ball kind of be all united.”

Karlaftis is himself a big part of the plan going forward for the team's pass rush, with or without Jones, and as a second-year player now, he admitted the veterans on the team have to step up and "fill that void as a collective."

Jones was the team's defensive MVP last season and was a first-team All-Pro as he put up 15.5 sacks and helped to anchor the Chiefs' pass rush. This year he's hoping to get paid like one of the best defensive tackles in the game, but the difference between Aaron Donald's $31 million annual salary and Quinnen Williams at $24M could be causing some real problems in negotiations.

Here's hoping Jones and the Chiefs can work something out soon for the sake of filling the void and moving on as a unified front.