Chris Jones contract Projecting Chiefs stars next deal in 2024 NFL free agency
Chris Jones contract Projecting Chiefs stars next deal in 2024 NFL free agency
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Chris Jones is one of the NFL's elite, indispensable defensive players. That makes the Chiefs defensive tackle the best pending unsigned player in 2024 NFL free agency.Kansas City will do its best to keep him as a core player of its Super Bowl dynasty, but team officials must lock up Jones to a long-term contract to do so. Jones is 29 and will turn 30 in July, but his career-best play the past two seasons suggests he has plenty of time left in his prime.Jones is looking for a deal that makes him the new highest-paid defensive player in the league, present and past. Based on the NFL's escalating paydays, it would be an upset if Jones doesn't end up No. 1 in average annual salary, guaranteed money and total contract value.Here's projecting the parameters of how Jones should get paid by the Chiefs or another team, first looking at how Jones has been paid before:MORE: Joel Bitonio Jersey Jones held out of 2023 training camp looking for a contract extension beyond this season. He ended up signing a new one-year deal at $19.5 million, with $18.4 million of it guaranteed.That short-term annual salary kept Jones short of cracking the top 13 defensive players. The Chiefs got a discount for Jones to stay with them for another year. That won't happen again in 2024.When Jones was a pending free agent in 2020, after the Chiefs won Super Bowl 54, he was franchise-tagged at first, for one year at $16.1 million.Jones didn't sign that tender or play for that salary. During the mid-July deadline, Jones and Chiefs agreed on a four-year, $80 million contrat, with $60 million of tha guaranteed. The last year of that pact was '23 before Jones was boosted again with additional guaranteed money on his current one-year contract.The Chiefs can do that, but it would be expensive and not at all in their best financial interest. Kansas City is in decent salary cap shape, at a projected $24 million under the cap.Because of Jones being previously tagged in 2020, it would cost the Chiefs 120 percent of his current cap hit in 2023 to tender him. Although Jones' contract was for $19.5 million, when breaking it down in base salary (that $18.4 million guaranteed), signing bonus and restructure bonus, Jones counted $26.8 million toward the Chiefs' cap in 2023.Based on that number, the updated franchise tag value for Jones would be near $32.2 million. In terms of average annual salary, that would be second among defensive players, in between 49ers end Nick Bosa and Rams tackle Aaron Donald. But the Chiefs would then need to absorb that direct cap hit, vs. giving Jones a long-term deal that can provide significant short-term cap relief.For Jones to be the highest-paid defensive player of all time, he must have better parameters on his contract than Bosa.The 49ers gave Bosa a 5-year, $170 million deal in September, not long after Jones agreed to his one-year adjustment with the Chiefs. That total contract value beat Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack, still playing on the six-year, $141 million contract he got from the Bears.Bosa is first in average annual salary at $34 million. Donald remains No. 2 there at $31.7 million. Joe Thomas Jersey Bosa also got a record $122.5 million in guaranteed money as part of his contract. Steelers edge rusher T.J. Ray-Ray Armstrong Jersey Watt is a distant second with $80 million guaranteed.The question is, can Jones do better than Bosa in all three aspects? Given his age, it would make sense for Jones to sign another four-year contract that has him signed through his Age-33 season.The Chiefs would need to best not only what Donald makes per year, but also the $32.2 million Jones would get on the franchise tag. To that end, $33 million per makes sense, but then again, as the best free agent, supply and demand suggests Jones can be the first $35 million defensive man in the NFL.Then Jones is looking at four years at $140 million. That would put Jones also in line to have at least $100 million of that guaranteed, well more than Watt at about the same percentage of Bosa. The total contract value also would then be right on par with Mack, only two years shorter in length.If it came down to it on star defensive players, the Chiefs would commit more to Jones than cornerback L'Jarius Sneed. Also by structuring Jones' deal in the right way for cap relief and making a few cost-cutting moves, the Chiefs could lock up Jones long-term and use the franchise tag on Sneed for around $19 million.Jones will get a top-of-market deal should he leave in free agency. Now it's up to the Chiefs if they think can afford to be the ones to help him break the bank. Although they can make it work with Jones, letting him test free agency might feel like their wiser move.
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