Chiefs Rumors: Chris Jones responds to contract critics
After Chris Jones signed a one-year deal to return to the Kansas City Chiefs, football fans had one common sentiment -- Jones holdout was for nothing. Essentially, Jones was fined over $3 million and missed his team's first game all for incentives. On paper, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and leaves some (myself included) wondering what his agent was thinking. Jones, however, still has faith.
Well, that's not completely correct by Jones. He'll get his salary back and then some assuming he can hit a few contract incentives. I wrote a summary of Jones' deal this morning, detailing why he lost the negotiations:
"Chris Jones wanted Aaron Donald money, or so we were told, along with a long-term deal that guaranteed him a home in Kansas City well into his 30's. He didn't receive any of that, instead getting a chance to reach incentives that would also benefit the team. Jones lost whatever leverage and good will he had with the fanbase when he showed up to the Chiefs season-opening loss to the Lions, and sat in a suite. In that game, KC's Jones-less defense held Detroit to 14 points, with one of the Lions touchdowns coming off an interception return."
Per reports, Jones can receive incentives nearing $3.5 million if he plays 50 percent of the team's downs and registers 10 sacks.
A player like Jones can certainly reach those marks, but it's not easy. Right now, Jones is operating at a near $3.6 million deficit.
Chiefs Rumors: Kansas City feared the worst with Travis Kelce
Per FOX's Jay Glazer, the Chiefs initially feared the worst with Travis Kelce's injury. While he missed the team's first game against the Detroit Lions, Kansas City does expect him to play this week assuming everything goes according to plan.
"People actually don't know how big of a bullet they missed on Travis Kelce," Glazer began on FOX NFL Sunday. "When it first happened, they actually thought there was a tibial plateau fracture, which is a fracture of the leg which would've put him out for the year. Instead, he just had a really deep bone bruise. They had to pull out 45 cc of blood."
Kelce begged Andy Reid to play on Thursday night, but the veteran head coach was correct in sitting Patrick Mahomes favorite target. Considering the background we now know, the Chiefs would've been borderline insane to play him in the first place.
However, Glazer also revealed the Chiefs plan is to play him this week in practice and hope he's ready to go for next Sunday.
"Now, yesterday (Saturday), they actually put him in his stance and wanted to see if it swelled after, it looked good," Glazer said. "Today (Sunday), as we speak, he's at the facility working on the muscles around it. That test is passing as well. Tomorrow (Monday) they're gonna try and run him. As long as it doesn't swell, he'll play next week."
For now, it looks as though Kansas City received some good news on their star tight end. After a Week 1 defeat, the Chiefs can ill-afford any other setbacks to Kelce.
Chiefs Rumors: Andy Reid takes the blame for Kadarius Toney's drops
Give Chiefs head coach Andy Reid some credit -- he's a tremendous leader of men.
Kadarius Toney had an awful season debut on Thursday Night Football, dropping two critical passes which directly led to the Chiefs defeat. Rather than pile on, Reid has done what an sensible coach would do: build up his young wide receiver rather than tear him down. Toney has taken a beating on social media, and surely knows he needs to be better. Reid criticizing him would do nothing but hurt matters.
"You know what I would probably take the blame on that – when I said that after the game, I meant that," Reid said. "Listen, he missed all of training camp from honestly the first punt return pre-practice on through, so he literally had no training camp until just the last few days when he got back here – and we measured that, we didn't give him a lot. With that, I thought him getting in the game was important."
Reid admitted that his offensive gameplan was too reliant on Toney, in part because of the players he was missing. Without Travis Kelce on offense, the Chiefs had to divvy up his targets elsewhere. Giving a player like Toney more opportunities sounds good on paper, but if he wasn't full adjusted to the pace of play, then it's easy to understand why he faltered.
"He's had some time here now to keep working, which I think will benefit him," Reid said. "Getting in that game I thought was an important thing – I mean that part was important, putting him in the positions I did, I probably shouldn't have done that. I think you'll see better as we go down the road here from him."
Does Toney deserve blame for the way he played? Absolutely. But Reid shouldering some of the responsibility helps take the heat off of him for now.
