Kansas City Chiefs: 3 players who might be casualties of Chris Jones’ new deal

Which players will be affected the most by the Chris Jones deal?

Barbeque isn’t the only thing cooking in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Chiefs are busy securing key pieces for a potential dynasty. Chris Jones is getting a 4-year, $80 million contract extension with $5 million in incentives making the total contract worth $85 million according to Adam Schefter. Patrick Mahomes just received half-a-billion dollars from the team to be its franchise anchor for the next decade.

Jones was a big piece they needed to extend. He finished the 2019-20 season leading the Chiefs with nine sacks. The 6-foot-6, 310 pound, Super Bowl Champion was drafted by the Chiefs in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft out of Mississippi State.

Jones was a force to be reckoned with in the interior for the Chiefs. He displayed a quick first step off of the line of scrimmage which allowed him to pressure the quarterback effectively. If he wasn’t the first one to the quarterback or ball carrier, he made sure that he was in on the tackle. What should also be acknowledged is his ability to react to the football. He batted down four passes at the line of scrimmage. That’s not a big number but it’s widely taught that a defensive lineman needs to put his arms up to bat down the pass if he can’t get to the quarterback.

Now that Mahomes and Jones are taken care of, it’s important that other big names get paid too. How Brett Veach and the Kansas City Chiefs will get it done remains to be seen. For more on the Jones deal, check out this Arrowhead Addict piece by Matt Conner.

Potential Out for Chiefs in 2021. 

Tyrann Mathieu’s NFL career has been a lesson in hard work and perseverance for many players in the league to follow. After a roller coaster-like college career, Mathieu was a 2013 third-round pick by the Arizona Cardinals. While he played in almost every game during his seven-year career, he dealt with ACL and shoulder injuries in his first four seasons. In his inaugural season with the Chiefs, he recorded 71 tackles (59 solo), 12 passes defensed, four interceptions and two sacks.

The Honey Badger moniker is still alive and well in Mathieu’s play on the field. His presence in the Chiefs secondary was huge in terms of his leadership, ball skills, and run support. He had his second-highest interception tally last season. He had five with the Cardinals in 2015. Mathieu is equally as valuable to the Chiefs defense in run support because of his speed and quickness.

According to Spotrac, he is going to be the second-highest-paid player on the team in base salary next season ($14.55 million) and is currently the 6th highest-paid safety in the league. He is the third player on this list simply because the Chiefs secondary wouldn’t have been what it became without him. He is under contract through the 2021 season and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2022. If the Chiefs want to continue to have the kind of leadership they do in the secondary, it will behoove them to find a way to sign him to an extension.

But he could be one of the first casualties of this current spending spree when we end up crossing that bridge.