Chiefs’ GM Brett Veach Makes His Decision On Trading Chris Jones Exceptionally Clear

Protective tackle With a preseason game approaching, Chris Jones is still refusing to report to Kansas City Chiefs training camp and the great lineman has failed to sign a contract extension with the only NFL team he has ever known.

Jones, who turned 29 in July, allegedly wants a contract that would make him the league’s second-highest-paid defensive lineman in terms of annual pay. There is a sizable difference between Quinnen Williams’ $24M mark and Aaron Donald’s $31.67 million average, which leaves plenty of room for Jones to fill in anywhere in the middle along the road. But as time has gone on, many have questioned how far Jones’ team has taken its demands in the bargaining process.

Chiefs’ GM Brett Veach Makes His Decision On Trading Chris Jones Exceptionally Clear

“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 told Jesse Newell of the Kansas City Star. “Hopefully, we get this resolved, but we have no intentions of making a trade.”

In several other instances, a team that declares it has “no intention” of trading a crucial player actually does so. However, the Chiefs appear to be really interested in keeping Jones.

“He’s a great player, and he wants a big contract,” Veach said. “He deserves a big contract, and I don’t think there are any surprises in that regard. But there are just some hurdles we have to work through in regard 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.”

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Tyreek Hill was traded by Kansas City to the Miami Dolphins last season rather than offering the wide receiver a big new contract. Veach said that they relocated him because they anticipated Jones receiving payment.

With a career-high 15.5 sacks, Jones placed third in the vote for defensive player of the year in the previous season. In addition to his five quarterback hits on Joe Burrow during Kansas City’s victory against the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game, he recorded two more sacks.

Since the start of training camp, Veach said that communication between the team and Jones has decreased from “extensive” to “less frequent.” He is still certain that they will give the 29-year-old more time, though.

“Sometimes these things take some time,” Veach said. “So we’ll just continue to press away and work through that and hopefully make some movement here. We went into this, and as we’re having these ongoing dialogues. Our intent and desire has always been to get Chris Jones secured for the foreseeable future, and we’re gonna press on with that mindset.”

 

 

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