Kansas City Chiefs simply don’t have money to keep Chris Jones
By John McCarty
We’ve seen just how much money the Chiefs don’t have, but will need simply to start the season. We’ve also seen that Patrick Mahomes will likely have a massive cap number for next season.
Currently, as we sit here today, the Chiefs have roughly $66.607 million in projected salary cap space for 2021. That number will decrease slightly to absorb the contract adjustment of Frank Clark. Reduce further when you take into account both the 2020 and 2021 draft class. Let’s say, for two draft classes, considering we were accounting $6 million for the 2020 class, let’s call the 2021 class $7 million.
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So, for two draft classes, lets say it’s $13 million. Combine with, lets conservatively Mahomes will carry a cap figure in 2021 of $40 million (he currently doesn’t have a cap number for next season, the Chiefs are yet to officially pick up his 5th year option).
Maybe I’m giving to much room for the 2020 draft class, maybe I’m not giving up enough for a Mahomes deal. What I do know, likely, the Chiefs are going to be facing a reduction of at least $50 million in their 2021 cap room. This is again without free agents, league minimum contracts being what they are.
So, the Chiefs actually have about $16 million in cap space. Sixteen.
If we use the Frank Clark contract as a guide to what the Chris Jones deal may look like (and considering the DeForest Buckner contract, this is likely the base of the value), Clark came into the offseason with a 2020 cap hit of $22.7 million. That would mean, signing Chris Jones puts the Chiefs over the salary cap next year already.
Currently, the Chiefs have 29 players under contract, obviously draft picks will increase that number, but they are not there yet. So without enough players to fill out a roster (barely come close enough to being able to field starters), the Chiefs are over the cap if they re-sign Chris Jones.
We all love Chris Jones and he’s a solid player. However, it certainly appears the Chiefs themselves may have moved on.
Well before DeForest Buckner's new deal, my understanding is Chris Jones has been looking for a deal similar to Frank Clark's for over a year now (Clark got five years and $104M, $60M+ guaranteed).
— Matt Verderame (@MattVerderame) March 16, 2020
We'll see if he gets there in KC or elsewhere, but that's been the asking price.
The reported initial offer the Chiefs made to Chris Jones goes in line with what FanSided’s Matt Verderame had reported (see above), which looks a lot like the deal Frank Clark signed with the Chiefs.
A possibility of what happened is maybe the Chiefs approached Jones about a new deal and were rebuffed. The Chiefs then turned their attention to Frank Clark, who did take the deal and is now under contract.
Chiefs Players as Characters from Avengers. dark. Next
The non-specific Chris Jones chatter from Brett Veach indicates they may have been wanting to move him all along. We shall see. I may be way off.