Chris Jones - Making Him the Highest Paid Defender in the League

[dlphg9]

Why couldn't we do it? Khalil Mack, the highest paid defensive player in the league right now had cap hits of $13.8 mil in yr 1 of his new deal and $11.9 mil in yr 2. Macks avg yearly salary is $23.5 mil per year.

Veach doesn't seem to like giving guys contracts past the age of 30, so I could see him doing a 5 yr $120 mil deal. That keeps Jones in KC until age 30 and we get all his prime years and don't run the risk of having to pay him a ton of money after he's 30. Him being a 2nd rounder is going to help him in negotiating.

If we structure the contract so that his cap hit is $13 mil in year 1 and $15 mil in year 2, we have him cheap when we are tight with the cap this year and then next year there should be a decent jump in the cap and we're not out $8 mil because of Eric Berrys dead money. The cap should raise significantly for the remaining 3 years of his contract and it wont burden us with trying to get other good players.

There are several factors that should allow him to become the highest paid defender in the league.

1. He is an absolute beast. I am higher on his run D than most, but no one can argue that he is not, at worst, the 2nd best pass rushing interior lineman in the league. Personally, I put him right next to Aaron Donald when it comes to pass rushing. Now someone smarter than me correct me please, but has there ever been a better pass rusher at that position than those 2? His impact in the Super Bowl will be a big bargaining chip for him during negotiations as well

2. He is only 25 years old. Veach is smart. He doesn't like giving out big money to old guys and he's not going to extend guys into the twilight of their careers and pay them tons of money. Luckily for Chris Jones he is only 25 and a 5 year deal puts him at 30 years old. Veach wants to keep guys that still have their best years ahead of him and the prime age for a DT is 28 according to PFF, so that means in theory we haven't even seen the best Chris Jones and Brett Veach isn't going to just let that walk away.

3. The new CBA. When the top paid defenders signed their deals there were only 16 regular season game and now neverything is pointing to a 17 game regular season, so contracts are going to reflect that. Prior to the news about the newest CBA coming a year early my best guess was that CJ was going to get $21.5 mil a year from the Chiefs, since Frank Clark is basically getting $21 mil a year. $21.5 mil a year breaks down to $1.34 mil per regular season game, so that extra game should pay an additional $1.34 mil a year and that alone puts CJs yearly avg to just under $23 million a year. That hasn't even taken into account the increase in the percentage of profit the players are getting.

Chris Jones is one of my favorite players on the team and is probably my favorite player on the defense. I hope we keep him even if we have to pay him more money per year than any other defender in the history of the league. My love for Chris Jones may cloud my judgement and make me irrational and I may be completely wrong in my train of thought, but I dont think signing Jones long term is detrimental to the future success of this team whatsoever. I actually believe it would be insanely stupid and detrimental to let a generational talent like Chris Jones walk because we got some draft picks for him. Chris Jones's skills are only matched by one other player at his position and those 2 may be the best pass rushers we have ever seen at d tackle and I don't think anyone else is even close. You can't replace his production and trading him is an awful idea.

[tatorhog]

I'd like to keep him, but if there is a bounty to be had in exchange for him, then I would be ok with seeing him go too.

IVIT

[saphojunkie]

Originally Posted by Toad

I gotta confess that I have flip flopped on tag/trade vs just paying him now. Hell, I still go back and forth some, but for the most part, I think you pay him.

IMHO, The real issue is anticipating the CBA and subsequent salary cap. $20mm may be a bargain after they come to an agreement.

I too will trust Veach. He’s earned that.

That’s why no one is signing until the CBA is done.

Good ****ing grief, people act like the chiefs are the only ones whose salary cap is going up. Every single other free agent will demand more, because there is more. The salary cap increasing only means something to players on EXISTING contracts.

Paying Jones is a mistake. It a a mistake they might make, but it’s a mistake. You trade him and move on. Defenses are simply not about one player. They are about a whole unit, and this whole unit needs upgrades. Trading Jones gives you not only the cap space but also the draft picks to do so.

It’s the only logical choice, assuming the value on the trade is in any way fair compensation.

[Jerok]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

IF that's true, then you trade him.


IF.

Coincidentally I agree. That's why I want to trade him as long as we get at least a 1 and a 3.

[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

No one is claiming that

Then why would you name this thread that very thing?

[MAHOMO 4 LIFE!]

Guys let’s just trust Veach. Everyone here should’ve gained his trust after he literally revamped this defense in a span of one offseason and made us super bowl winners. Trust Veach!! Whatever move he makes we need to support him. He will be our GM for the next 20-30 years so get used to it

[Sassy Squatch]

Originally Posted by MAHOMO 4 LIFE!

Guys let’s just trust Veach. Everyone here should’ve gained his trust after he literally revamped this defense in a span of one offseason and made us super bowl winners. Trust Veach!! Whatever move he makes we need to support him. He will be our GM for the next 20-30 years so get used to it

"gained his trust"? Were you born this silly, or do you have to work on it?

[IUsedToBeATightEnd]

Originally Posted by saphojunkie

That’s why no one is signing until the CBA is done.

Good ****ing grief, people act like the chiefs are the only ones whose salary cap is going up. Every single other free agent will demand more, because there is more. The salary cap increasing only means something to players on EXISTING contracts.

Paying Jones is a mistake. It a a mistake they might make, but it’s a mistake. You trade him and move on. Defenses are simply not about one player. They are about a whole unit, and this whole unit needs upgrades. Trading Jones gives you not only the cap space but also the draft picks to do so.

It’s the only logical choice, assuming the value on the trade is in any way fair compensation.

Defenses as well as offenses are not about one player, 100% agree.
But some players are more difficult to replace than others.
The defense needs upgrade, and so does the offense (running backs and the OL to some extent), but losing key players in the process is not the way to build a dynasty. If Veach is confident in the draft picks he may let Jones go, otherwise I'm sure he'll stay and get paid a fair amount of money.

[Megatron96]

Veach has said repeatedly that he wants to keep Jones, and I believe he’s going to try to do exactly that. I’m very curious to see just how he tries to make that happen.

As for the hypothetical case of trading Jones, I’m not sold on the idea. You don’t give away a great known quantity for a possibly might be almost as good unknown quantity. It’s stupid.

[Toad]

Originally Posted by saphojunkie

That’s why no one is signing until the CBA is done.

Good ****ing grief, people act like the chiefs are the only ones whose salary cap is going up. Every single other free agent will demand more, because there is more. The salary cap increasing only means something to players on EXISTING contracts.

Paying Jones is a mistake. It a a mistake they might make, but it’s a mistake. You trade him and move on. Defenses are simply not about one player. They are about a whole unit, and this whole unit needs upgrades. Trading Jones gives you not only the cap space but also the draft picks to do so.

It’s the only logical choice, assuming the value on the trade is in any way fair compensation.

I don’t think anyone said that the Chiefs are the only team whose salary cap is going up. The point is that this salary cap increase may be a good opportunity to extend both Mahomes and Jones while mitigating the risk of not being able to afford other players to fill the roster.

[Talisman]

I know most people believe the franchise tag was placed on Jones temporarily to give the Chiefs some breathing room to get a deal or trade done, but how does the cap look if he were to play on the tag? Is that even a possibility? Obviously it wouldn't be great from a relationship standpoint given how Jones spoke out against it as soon as he was tagged.

[BossChief]

Originally Posted by Talisman

I know most people believe the franchise tag was placed on Jones temporarily to give the Chiefs some breathing room to get a deal or trade done, but how does the cap look if he were to play on the tag? Is that even a possibility? Obviously it wouldn't be great from a relationship standpoint given how Jones spoke out against it as soon as he was tagged.

Jones hasn’t been tagged yet.

The team has said they intend to tag him, but the step of actually doing so hasn’t happened yet.

[RunKC]

Someone correct me if I’m wrong here, but we need to make a decision on Sammy by next Wednesday right?

Pretty sure we can’t be over the cap on the day of the new league year and Chris Jones tag puts us over while Sammy is the best option to cover that $15 or so million.

[Talisman]

Originally Posted by BossChief

Jones hasn’t been tagged yet.

The team has said they intend to tag him, but the step of actually doing so hasn’t happened yet.

Gotcha. Saw this from an article on Forbes:

The NFL hasn’t calculated the franchise tag values for 2020 yet, but in the 2019 season, they were $17.128 million for a defensive end and $15.209 million for a defensive tackle.

Jones predominantly played defensive tackle for the first time in 2019 after the Chiefs switched to a 4-3 scheme under new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.

If a player plays multiple positions, can you base the franchise tag value on the position they played the most using the previous year's snaps? Does it have to be one of the two amounts or if a player played 60% DT and 40% DE, could you set it to $15.977 million (60% of the DT tag and 40% of the DE tag)? In other words, does the team have any leeway on the amount or is it specifically set by the NFL?

[Red Dawg]

Trade Houston are you nuts? Trade Berry are you nuts? How did making them the highest paid at their position work out for everyone not named Houston or Berry? Not very good.

[IUsedToBeATightEnd]

Originally Posted by Red Dawg

Trade Houston are you nuts? Trade Berry are you nuts?

How can you compare a player at the end of his career, and another one who's been "day by day and no play" for the past few years, to a healthy beast in his prime such as Jones