So unless you’ve been living under a rock, the latest news headlines that concern your Kansas City Chiefs circle around disgruntled defensive tackle Chris Jones taking to twitter insinuating that he “will not” play for the duration of the 2020 season.
That is unless he receives a new contract that’ll pay him $20 million a season, which requires cap space Kansas City simply doesn’t have. According to the numbers at OverTheCap.com, the Chiefs have approximately $6.25 million in cap space.
As of July 1, the Chiefs’ front office has 14 days until the July 15 deadline for all franchised players to sign a new contract extension or be forced to play the upcoming season under the tag. For Jones, that means he’ll receive $16 million for 2020 IF he signs and plays out the 2020 season.
However, if Jones goes through with his decision to sit out the 2020 campaign, he’ll essentially get nothing as a result.
On one hand, this could be a smoke and mirrors tactic by Jones to try and get a reaction out of Brett Veach and the rest of the Chiefs’ staff that would result in him receiving his desired contract.
If that’s the case, Veach isn’t flinching and as previously stated, the Chiefs don’t have the cap space, to begin with, and even if they did it’d likely go towards paying Patrick Mahomes.
While Jones is an incredible talent and one of the elite defensive tackles in the league right now, refusing to be on the field has a huge chance of blowing up in his face.
If Jones truly sits out the season, it creates a huge opportunity for guys like Mike Pennel to receive more snaps and even make their case to be a plausible replacement.
That includes a young defensive tackle from Northwestern who might I remind everyone, can do backflips despite weighing 324-pounds.
Khalen Saunders played by the necessity for Kansas City due to injuries but registered 24 tackles and a sack in 2019 and would love an opportunity to improve and showcase his talent as a viable alternative to Chris Jones in his second season.
Ultimately, if the Chiefs are forced to suit up without their star defensive tackle and Steve Spagnuolo’s defense continues to play solid and doesn’t miss a beat, particularly in the trenches with either Mike Pennel or Khalen Saunders alongside Derrick Nnadi, then that’ll prove to Brett Veach that he doesn’t necessarily need to pay Chris Jones after all and can afford to shop his around or let him walk.
Which in turn, would mean Jones will likely be on his way out of Kansas City and to another city where a team will be willing to pay him the big-money deal he’s looking for.
