Chris Jones sends cryptic message to Chiefs fans amid contract dispute
Less than one month away from the start of the regular season, the Kansas City Chiefs and Chris Jones remain at arm's length as the star defensive lineman seeks a new contract.
On Tuesday, Jones took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to send a simple message to Chiefs Kingdom.
"KC…I love you," he tweeted.
While Jones' words might read as a cryptic farewell to Kansas City, Chiefs fans shouldn't be overly concerned. Just one day ago, general manager Brett Veach told Jesse Newell of the Kansas City Star that the organization has "no intentions" of trading Jones. Furthermore, ESPN's Jeff Darlington reported Tuesday on "Get Up" that it "doesn't feel like there's any animosity" between the two sides.
Jones, 29, is entering the final year of his contract and is set to earn $20M in 2023. Currently the seventh-highest-paid defensive lineman in football, Jones led all interior pass-rushers with 15.5 sacks in 2022 en route to first-team All-Pro honors.
This offseason, fellow defensive tackles Quinnen Williams ($24M) and Daron Payne ($22.5M) each inked new contracts that will pay them more than Jones on average, despite having only two nine-plus sack seasons between them over their NFL careers. As for Jones, he's collected nine-plus sacks in four of the last five seasons and ranks No. 4 leaguewide with 56.5 sacks since 2018.
Despite his apparent love for Kansas City, look for the two-time Super Bowl champion to continue his holdout until the Chiefs offer up a contract on par with (or exceeding) Aaron Donald's $31.6M average salary with the Los Angeles Rams.
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