Amid uncertainty about whether he will be back for a ninth season with the Kansas City Chiefs, Chris Jones provided fans with a spark of hope Wednesday.
At the Chiefs’ victory parade, Jones fueled talk of a three-peat by indicating he wants to return to the team.
‘I got on this stage last year and I said: ‘run it back, run it back,” Jones said. ‘But you know what? I want that three-peat. And for those who want Chris Jones gone, I ain’t going nowhere, baby. I’m going to be here this year, and the year after that. I need that three-peat.’
Unless he receives the franchise tag or agrees to a long-term contract with the Chiefs, Jones is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the start of the new league year in March. Issuing the franchise tag is expected to cost Kansas City more than $32 million, which could be prohibitive for a franchise that is currently projected to have just $22.8 million in cap space, according to OverTheCap.com.
In the week before the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers, Jones said he hoped to remain with the franchise but acknowledged his time with the team could be ending.
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‘I know there’s a possibility this could be my last game with the Chiefs. You just take it all in,’ Jones said Wednesday in the lead-up to the 25-22 win over the San Francisco 49ers. ‘I’ll let the offseason do its thing. I don’t really focus on it. I’m not too worried about it. After everything is settled and the dust clears, we’ll see where we’re at.’
Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said prior to the Super Bowl that retaining Jones and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed would be top offseason priorities.
‘Sometimes I look at our situation and I’m like, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to do this,’ but we usually work through things systematically and have a list of the priorities,’ Veach said Thursday. ‘Certainly, Chris and LJ are at the top of the list.
‘It’s extremely hard because you have two keystone players there.’
A five-time Pro Bowl selection, Jones remains the linchpin of the Chiefs’ defensive front after recording 10 ½ sacks last season. He figured prominently into several key plays in Kansas City’s Super Bowl victory, including a pressure on third-and-4 in overtime that forced the 49ers to settle for a field goal.