The Chiefs need Jones to have their best shot at another Super Bowl this season and Jones needs to get a deal done soon to maximize what he is paid this season so that the overall money works out in his favor. The Chiefs have also had a fantastic locker room with little to no drama during this Super Bowl era and the longer this drags on the more people will take sides and this could turn one of KC’s strengths as a team into a problem.
So what would a compromise look like? Well we can use the leaked numbers from a few days ago to come up with a pretty simple solution, but first we need to put those numbers in context. I apologize in advance for all the math you’re about to digest, but I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible. First off, instead of reading the agent biased take on the Chiefs offer and Jones demand that was floated out there a few days ago, I highly recommend this article by Jason Fitzgerald at Over the Cap. It lays out the two sides’ offers in an unbiased way.
We know Jones is set to make $19.5 million in 2023. If the reports are accurate, it appears both sides are looking at deals that would add two additional years to Jones contract and keep him under contract through the 2025 season (Jones would be 31 years old that season). The Chiefs offer would give him $55 million in new money and the deal Jones camp wants would give him $65 million in new money. The difference is in how those deals are being presented.
Jones camp says that when you combine the $19.5 for this season with $65 million in new money, you get $84.5 million over three years which is about $28.2 million per year which is right in the middle between Quinnen Williams and Aaron Donald’s deals. Their spin on KC’s offer is that when you combine the $19.5 for this season and $55 million in new money it only averages $24.8 million per year which is just barely over Williams deal and about $7 million per year below Donald.
However, as Fitzgerald points out in his Over The Cap article, teams have traditionally viewed deals in terms of the new money. So in KC’s eyes, the Jones camp wants $65 million in new money over two new years added, which is $32.5 million per year. That’s more than the Aaron Donald deal. Their stance is that their $55 million over two additional years is $27.5 million per year which slots in the middle range between Williams and Donald.
