Chiefs DT Chris Jones Contract Projections

What could it cost to keep Jones in Kansas City for the remainder of his career?

Much like Sneed, there are a lot of projections for a Chris Jones extension. When looking at contracts, the real numbers to pay attention to are guaranteed money and average per year (APY). In most cases, players will sign four or five-year deals with the likelihood that they will not finish the contract. With Jones being 29 now (30 when training camp starts), a three-year deal seems more likely than a four-year one, but the numbers are varied.

PFF is projecting the following deal: Four years, $120 million $30M APY, $80 million total guaranteed.

Fox Sports is projecting the following deal: 4 yrs $132.5M, $33.1M APY, $93.7M guaranteed with $67.2M fully guaranteed.

The Sporting News is projecting the following deal: 4 yrs $132.M, $33M APY, $100M guaranteed.

Spotrac is projecting the following deal: 3 yrs $85.451M, $28.5M APY

PFF is more of a middle-of-the-road comparison when it comes to Chris Jones. With the contract variance, I think it makes the most sense to make them all four-year deals, meaning Spotrac’s deal would be four years for $114 million. We will average the guaranteed money across all the deals, which would mean Spotrac would come in at around $91.23 million guaranteed.

How would this fit under the Chiefs cap?

First, the APY isn’t a factor, as the cap number will be determined mainly by salary and signing bonus. Let’s look at how this would likely work based on how the Chiefs structure most of their contracts.

When the Chiefs signed free agent safety Justin Reid, the total came in at $31.5 million. His APY of $10.5 million per year was the same as his signing bonus. Reid received $20.485 million fully guaranteed or under $10 million more than the signing bonus. His salary for his first year was $1.035 million. Now let’s apply this formatting to a Jones deal.

Since there is such a variance, let’s average all the APYs and guarantees together to create a deal representing all of the projections above. Averaging the projections together, we devise a four-year deal for $124.6 million or $31.15 million APY. Jones’ guarantees would be $91.23 million over the contract's life.

Since it's a four-year deal, the signing bonus can be split into four years for salary cap purposes. While his APY would be $31.15 million, his 2024 cap number could be as low as $9 million with a $31.15 million signing bonus. Jones’ salary in 2024 would be $1.21 million, and the rest of the guaranteed money would hit in 2025 and 2026.

Bottom Line

Jones is the more expensive option for the Chiefs to sign to a long-term deal. While the Chiefs have become very adept at drafting corners, pocket-crushing interior defensive linemen are much harder to find. All of the estimates above come in more than what it was reported the Chiefs offered last year. Can they find a middle ground? I’m guessing a deal gets done, but I have a hard time seeing Veach break the $30 million APY mark.