How COVID-19 Impacts Chris Jones' Future in Kansas City
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the NFL world, one particular aspect threatens the Kansas City Chiefs' ability to sign DT Chris Jones to a long-term deal.
While there are a variety of factors hindering the negotiations and keeping the future foggy for Jones and the Chiefs, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated discussed the financial ramifications of the NFL's possible Coronavirus-limited season:
The money. Things have been pretty smooth between the NFL and union, and that’s mostly because until just recently the financial issues that need to be worked out hadn’t been discussed. And while discussion on the looming revenue shortfall has now begun, they haven’t waded into the heavy stuff quite yet.
That heavy stuff? With the revenue numbers expected to be way down this year, the formula on the 2021 cap is likely to spit out a relatively ugly number, and having the cap drop helps no one. It hurts owners, because it makes it tougher to plan. It hurts team-builders and coaches, because it’s almost certain to cause a bloodletting on a lot of rosters. It hurts players for very obvious reasons.
So I’d expect discussion soon to center on how the union and league will make sure that number is level. They could, potentially, borrow from this year. I think what’s more likely is that they borrow from 2022 and beyond, which will make negotiating long-term deals much more complicated for teams in the coming months (hence the boatload of premium young veterans who haven’t gotten their blockbuster second contracts yet).
From Patrick Mahomes' sure-to-happen contract extension to Jones' seemingly much-more-uncertain one, no longer being able to reasonably project the future of the salary cap makes the Chiefs' job much more difficult. Breer's assumption that the league will push for a flat cap in 2021 makes sense, but as higher cap hits for players like Frank Clark kick into play in 2021, the cap likely won't be raising with it, creating even less flexibility for KC's plans for Mahomes, Jones, and others.
