With the 2023 NFL draft now in the rearview, Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach is turning his attention to some other offseason business.
One of the most pressing matters for Veach to attend to is an extension for star DT Chris Jones. The eighth-year defensive tackle is coming off his best season since 2018 with 44 total tackles, 15.5 sacks, 17 tackles for loss, four passes batted and two forced fumbles. He’s also in the final year of his four-year extension worth $85 million that he signed during the 2020 offseason.
On Monday, Veach provided a very early update on the process and his hopefulness of getting a deal done.
“Well, until you get a deal done, I don’t know in this league if you’re ever confident with anything,” Veach explained. “But, I think that’s on the list of things to do and you know we get into the offseason and you know you’re into combine meetings and then you’re into free agency and then you’re into the draft and then after the Draft let the dust settle and start working on the future and things we can get accomplished in the spring. We’ll spend time and obviously, we have a great relationship with Chris (Jones) and his staff. So, we’ll get to work and see what we can do. Those things usually take a little bit of time here, so we have a little bit of a runway now until the start of training camp to hopefully get something done.”
Jones made it clear that he wants to be Chief for life and that he won’t play for another franchise. It sounds like the team would like to keep Jones a Chief for life, as well.
Titans DT Jeffery Simmons just signed a four-year contract extension worth $94 million. A new extension for Jones should look something like the deal for Simmons and the recent deal for Rams DT Aaron Donald.
