Chris Jones has a salary number in mind and he's willing to wait a long time for the Chiefs to match it. He says he learned that strategy from Le'Veon Bell.
Jones teased a holdout Tuesday during another round of chatter about a possible long-term contract for the defensive tackle. He and the Super Bowl champs have until July 15 to get a deal done, or else Jones will have to play (or not) for the $16 million franchise tag the Chiefs placed upon him in March.
MORE: Jones skipped minicamp last year as he sought new deal
Jones brought up Bell in a Twitter exchange with the Arrowhead Live podcast. Bell sat out the 2018 season rather than play for the $14.4 million tag with the Steelers. The running back went on to sign a four-year, $52.5 million contract ($27 million guaranteed at signing, $35 million in total guarantees, per Pro Football Talk) with the Jets last year.
Or I won’t play. @LeVeonBell told me about this
— Chris Jones (@StoneColdJones) July 1, 2020
Once tagged, Bell backed up Jones.
lol no silly...I just know what my worth is, & how to read and understand contracts...obviously people like you never seen an NFL contract or been in the NFL, so you will NEVER understand...& I’m content with that! @StoneColdJones knows what he doin, trust https://t.co/etJw8Puozc
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) July 1, 2020
Based on Tuesday's chatter, the magic number for Jones continues to be 20, as in $20 million a year, just below the Rams' Aaron Donald and the Colts' DeForest Buckner. The Chiefs also want to extend Patrick Mahomes' contract and would surely like to keep Travis Kelce and Tyrann Mathieu, too. That makes for a potential cap squeeze. And Jones wants to squeeze a few more million out of KC, too.
