NFL Rumors: Chiefs keeping stars, Cowboys surprise return, Jets-Davante Adams trade package

NFL Rumors: Chiefs already working to bring back Chris Jones, L'Jarius Sneed

It feels like ages ago that Kansas City Chiefs star defensive tackle Chris Jones held out of Week 1 after skipping all of the preseason and training camp looking for a new contract. Following that season-opening loss to the Lions, though, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach made sure to quickly get things resolved.

The potential pitfall of that, however, was that they only resolved things for the 2023 season. Jones is set to become an unrestricted free agency this offseason now, as is star cornerback L'Jarius Sneed. Losing one or both of those players would be hugely detrimental to the future of Steve Spagnuolo's defense as they are true tone-setting leaders on that side of the ball.

This is apparently not lost on Veach and the Chiefs either. In fact, they are already putting what wheels they can into motion before Super Bowl LVIII to try and get both defensive standouts back into the fold on new contracts.

Veach addressed the situation during a media appearance during Super Bowl preparations and, while admitting he didn't know how he could make it work, that's what the Chiefs are trying to do in order to re-sign Jones and Sneed, via Adam Teicher of ESPN:

"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. Certainly, Chris and LJ are at the top of the list."

The Chiefs are currently projected to have $23 million in cap space with their Top 51 according to Spotrac, which leaves room based on that alone to sign one of Jones or Sneed... maybe. However, Veach and the Kansas City front office could work to restructure deals, cut some cap casualties, and maneuver otherwise in order to clear enough room to get both defensive stalwarts back in the building.

There was a time when it seemed that the Chiefs could lose both Jones and Sneed. However, Veach clearly doesn't like the sound of that, and we can expect Kansas City to not let their two star free agents leave the franchise without a fight.