Chris Jones tells fan when he plans to end contract holdout and return to Chiefs

Pete Grathoff
·2 min read
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There’s been little known publicly about how negotiations have gone between the Chiefs and defensive lineman Chris Jones, but we may have gotten some insight Tuesday.

The two sides apparently aren’t close to a deal.

Jones, who has one year left on his contract but is holding out for a new deal, accumulated more than $1 million in fines by missing all of training camp ($50,000 per day, per the CBA).

The Chiefs’ regular-season opener is a little more than two weeks away and Jones indicated he won’t be at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium when the Chiefs play the Lions.

A fan on X (formerly Twitter) asked Jones when he plans to return to the team, and Jones said Week 8 of the regular season.

The Chiefs blog Arrowhead Pride noted Jones would forfeit $1,083,333 for each game he missed. He has a base salary of $19.5 million.

That would be a lot of money to give up, as someone pointed out to Jones, but he said he could afford it.

Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was asked Tuesday at what point he worries about Jones being prepared for the season.

“I don’t think Chris is any different than any other player that misses the entire camp and then has to play. It’s tough,” Spagnuolo said. “I mean, you certainly can’t expect that particular person as good as Chris is to play every down. And then you worry about injuries, is the body ready? Chris always keeps himself in good shape. But football shape’s different. So hopefully we can get him back, right?”

At that point, Spagnuolo crossed his fingers.

“And then when that happens,” Spagnuolo said, “we just have to figure out how to go about it.”

Games Jones could miss

Here are the first seven games of the season for the Chiefs and the ones Jones could miss if he holds true to his response to the fan.

Week 1: vs. Detroit

Week 2: at Jacksonville

Week 3: vs. Chicago

Week 4: at Jets

Week 5: at Vikings

Week 6: vs. Denver

Week 7: vs. Chargers

Includes reporting from The Star’s Jesse Newell