The Kansas City Chiefs are largely expected to be one of the best teams in the league yet again this coming season. However, they may have a big problem on their hands when it comes to star defensive lineman Chris Jones.
Jones and the Chiefs organization have been negotiating a new contract, and things seem to have hit a standstill. This led to Jones sending a clear message to the team by not reporting to the first day of team training camp earlier this week.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid discussed this ongoing situation with Jones, saying that he was “a bit surprised” that Jones has opted not to report.
“They’re doing their thing. We’re doing our thing,” Reid said via Jesse Newell of The Kansas City Star. “We’ll just see where it goes from there.”
He then detailed that while he and the team obviously want him there, they plan to focus on the players that are at training camp.
“We’ll just see how things go here down the road. There had been communication. We’ll see where it goes from here, and we’ll take it,” Reid added. “If you’re not here, we just keep moving. That’s how we roll.”
It seems like for the time being, Jones is prepared to continue this holdout for the foreseeable future. Each day he doesn’t report to camp, he is being fined $50,000.
If Jones doesn’t end up returning to the team for the start of the season, it would seemingly be a massive blow to the Chiefs’ defense. Jones had one of the best seasons of his career last year, recording 15.5 sacks which is tied for his career high.
