One of the biggest (and most unwanted) storylines coming out of the Kansas City Chiefs organization this summer has been the holdout of Chris Jones and the ongoing negotiations toward a new long-term deal. At this point, no one is quite sure when Jones will return to the team, but he's missed every bit of mandatory minicamp and every single day of training camp in St. Joseph with less than one week to go.
At this point, the absence of Jones has begun to affect plenty of sides here. No man is an island and the choices that Jones is making (or has made) are taking effect on those around him. In the end, he might get what he wants, which would make him a "winner" in his book, but would others feel the same? It's hard to say.
As the Chiefs and Jones continue to haggle over the final price on a long-term contract, let's look at the winners and the losers of Chris Jones's holdout from the Chiefs so far.
Loser: Chiefs Kingdom
Let's start this list by being selfish and thinking of the fans first, because despite their/our position on the outside of all of this, Chiefs Kingdom is still among the "losers" in this affair.
This might be nitpicky, but we already said we're thinking of fans first hre, and the truth is that fans have missed out on weeks and weeks of seeing Chris Jones do his thing. There have been no autographs or interactions, no updates or cool camp moments. What makes training camp so fun is seeing fans, especially younger ones, get up close with their favorite players and Jones is definitely one of those.
Instead, Jones was not only absent, but he turned himself into a talking point—and not in a good way. He became a cloud hanging over Chiefs camp and a negative distraction for fans. We'll get to more specific ways in which this should have been a feel-good summer for all—fans included—but for now it's just important to note that Chiefs Kingdom lost something in all of this as well.
Loser: Chris Jones
if Jones gets his money, then he'll feel like nothing less than a winner. I'm sure I would too.
But it didn't have to be this way. The Chiefs have been very, very interested in bringing Jones along for the long-term legacy ride from the beginning. Earlier this offseason, Brett Veach even stated that the Chiefs were thinking of preserving money for Stone Cold's long-term deal when they made the decision to trade away Tyreek Hill just over a year ago.
The up-front cost for Jones is a massive financial hit in the form of fines. Jones already owed just under $100K for missing the team's mandatory minicamp earlier this offseason. Once vets reported to St. Joseph, any further fines creeped to $50K/day. Yeah, that adds up quickly.
During an offseason in which the Chiefs should be soaking in the Super Bowl sun and Jones himself should be lifted up as the team's best defensive player (by far)—remember he was just voted into the NFL's Top 10 players overall. Now, Jones is going to have to save face with some of the team's fans and his reputation might have have been ruined already for some in the Kingdom who see him as selfish. (Recall all of the debates on social media about some players taking team-first deals versus Jones.)
In the end, there's also not a whole lot of leverage here at Jones's disposal, so the question has to be asked: To what end? Was it worth it? Maybe those of us who've never endured an Andy Reid training camp would believe we were "winners" if we could avoid it. But overall, Jones is among the losers here as well—money or not.
Loser: Young defensive linemen
On any other roster or at any other position, this should have been in the Winners column. But not here—not in Kansas City.
If the Chiefs had a plethora of young interior defensive linemen who needed the reps in training camp to grow and get better, then this would be a different story. After all, the NFL is all about "next man up" and the silver lining of a major absence or injury often means that new players are greater opportunities to develop and show the coaching staff what they can do.
That's not true in this case. The Chiefs have a dearth of talent along the defensive interior, and without Jones, the Chiefs have the worst defensive tackles in the game. They're fortunate that so many edge players can slide inside, but the truth is that there was really no one to benefit here from Jones's absence.
Keondre Coburn is the lone rookie in the middle who could generate any level of excitement among Chiefs Kingdom here, but even he would still have plenty of reps with the second and third-team units (and in preseason games) with or without Jones. As for the rest, Turk Wharton has missed time and is still working his way back from a serious injury. Meanwhile, how do the rest of these names strike you at the position: Phil Hoskins, Matt Dickerson, Chris Williams, Daniel Wise? Yeah, we thought so.
Look, here's what should have happened. The Chiefs should have had a full training camp with Jones providing leadership and guidance for a ton of young players who will line up alongside him all season. For a team that lost Frank Clark and Carlos Dunlap, do you think it wouldn't work wonders to have Jones around taking on that mantle of leadership for guys like George Karlaftis, Felix Anudike-Uzomah, B.J. Thompson and more?
Instead of picking up that responsibility, he only let his teammates down. That's a losing proposition.
Loser: Stephen Christopher Spagnuolo
Coming into the offseason, the combination of defensive line coach Joe Cullen and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo had a lot to be proud of after a stellar '22 season in which they'd won a second Super Bowl in four seasons and specifically put up the second most sacks in the NFL.
Moving forward, the Chiefs coaches had to feel very good about the way the defense was going to shape up going forward. After all, they'd unlocked something in Chris Jones that had never been seen before. That's not to say that Jones wasn't already a Pro Bowl-caliber performer. Rather, he'd never before taken the leap to true greatness—the kind of rarified air that could lead to a future induction into the Hall of Fame.
Last year, Jones became an Aaron Donald-esque game-altering force in the heart of the Chiefs defense. Because of this, Jones's presence in the middle also changed everything the Chiefs were able to plan defensively behind him.
Even knowing that Jones has to report for some part of the season in order for this year to accrue, Spags and company still have to plan for all potential outcomes if they want to be responsible. The Chiefs' coaches simply cannot stand by and say, "I'm sure he'll be here and ready to go in time." And that means that Spagnuolo has likely spent a decent amount of time and energy into coming up with alternate ways to generate pressure and utilize his front line coming into 2023.
That's not what anyone wants to picture coming into work for the Chiefs.
Loser: The Chiefs organization
This needs to be singled out here because the Chiefs themselves have lost out in a few ways given Jones's holdout.
First, Jones might have stayed in tremendous shape on his own time and dollar during this spring and summer, but even that is nothing compared to being in and around Arrowhead (or the team's training camp) during this offseason. That means that even when Jones returns, he's not going to be in game shape just yet. Given the issues at the position, it makes the Chiefs weaker and more susceptible to losing when it feels like there are more contenders than ever.
Second, the Chiefs have been financially hamstrung this entire summer. There's no way of knowing whether or not they've been unable to make some specific moves, but there's definitely been little-to-no wiggle room to get anything else done on the books. Other teams have been able to add the occasional vets as training camp started or was underway, but Brett Veach needs a new deal with Jones to generate cap space for this year.
Finally, this has been a feel-good offseason for an organization with a ton of positive momentum in its sails ever since they lifted the Lombardi back in February. Patrick Mahomes is a household name and a pop cultural icon at this point. Travis Kelce made the same leap by hosting Saturday Night Live, starting his own music festival, and generally being omnipresent. From Netflix docs to ESPY wins, it's been a very fun ride for a while and that excitement and momentum should have carried into a joyous training camp.
Instead, training camp has been plagued by concerns, none of which have been greater than the shadow cast on St. Joe by Jones and his holdout. Suddenly a thin position has become a source of doubt. Teammates are having to answer for one another. Newer teammates aren't getting mentored. Camp questions are focusing on who is not there versus the progress made by those present.