Chiefs: Big Week Coming Up

Chiefs: Big Week Coming Up – by the time the Kansas City Chiefs select their first player in the coming NFL Draft extravaganza 45 days from now, they will have almost completely decided how they’ll be re-forming the core of their roster, and putting the finishing touches on their “Dynasty.” Prior to that time, there is perhaps no bigger week coming up in the calendar year, than the week ahead of us. Let’s take a look at why that might be.

The Chris Jones Day

This Thursday (in two days): From Feb. 27 and ending at 4 p.m. ET on March 12, the  a period an NFL team can place the franchise (or transition) tag on a player who is set to become a free agent in 2020. The “franchise tag” is a way NFL teams can use to keep “franchise” designated players off the unrestricted or restricted free-agency market. For the Chiefs, that player would be DT Chris Jones.

In an article called, “What the Franchise Tag Means for Chris Jones” written by Jeff Fedotin for Forbes.com, he states:

“With his four-year, $6.2 million contract having expired, the 25-year-old Jones was slated to become an unrestricted free agent before the Chiefs made the move to secure his services.”

The Chiefs have made it clear they want to keep Jones and their GM, Brett Veach has said:

“Sometimes these things take some time to work through. The franchise tag is something that we have the ability to use. We’d certainly like to see if we can work something out with him.”

Translation, Jones will either:

a) play under the tag,

b) be signed and traded once he’s tagged,

c) he and the Chiefs will work out a new deal, or

d) he’ll sit out a year once he’s tagged.

Although CJ is friends with RB Le’Veon Bell, who sat out a year a year ago (and that didn’t work out too well for him) Jones will likely not choose that route, as few players do. 

In 2019 the franchise tag value for a defensive TACKLE was  $15.209M while the 2019 value for a defensive END was $17.128M. That seems to be a sticking point for Chris Jones because… Frank Clark was brought in as a DE while Chris Jones has meant as much to the defense, while playing inside at the DT position.

As a 25 year old defensive lineman (DE), Frank Clark signed a 5-year $104M contract with K.C. last spring. That works out to $20.8M per year and that’s the kind of money Chris Jones wants… or close to it. Brett Veach must have felt he was between a rock and a hard place at the time of signing because he’d already shipped Justin Houston out and already traded Dee Ford so he made Clark the second highest paid DE in the history of the league:

Lawrence had his deal done with Dallas just a few weeks earlier than when Veach did the sign-and-trade deal with the Seahawks. While it cost the Chiefs a first-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, a 2020 second-round pick and a swap of third-round picks in 2019… I’m not sure there are any Chiefs fans complaining about that trade now that they have a Super Bowl and Parade under their belts, all within the same year of that trade.

The problem comes when agents and GMs begin to place a value on other DL, like the 25 year old Chris Jones, who was every bit as much to credit with the defensive lines prowess in the SB run as Clark was: here are their comparative sack totals the past two seasons:

• • CJ: 15.5 sacks in 16 games (2018), 9 sacks in 13 games (2019)
  • Clark: 13 sacks in 15 games (2018), 8 sacks in 11 games (2019)

I’m sure Chris Jones is worth more than the $15.209M, which was the designated franchise tag amount for DTs in 2019, but in any case, I’m also pretty sure the 2020 Kansas City Chiefs can’t afford to pay out that much for him… no matter what the designated amount will be for a DT in 2020.

2 Days of Flirting Starts

Hey, remember when Andy Reid was penalized for talking to FA WR Jeremy Maclin during the flirting period? Well, that’s called “tampering” and Andy Reid was fined $60,000, general manager John Dorsey was fined $25,000, and the team was fined $200,000 in the end (those amounts came down after the team protested)… but the Chefs also ended up losing a 3rd round pick in 2016. Now, we all know how much a 3rd round pick is valued these days. BTW… it’s a lot, think: Travis Kelce, Derrick Nnadi, Kareem Hunt, Justin Houston, Chris Conley… and try not to think about KeiVarae Russell. 

Next Monday (in 6 days): Teams can contact, and enter into negotiations with, the agents of players who will be Unrestricted Free Agents when their 2019 player contracts expire at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18 (ET). I call it the Flirting Period… just don’t actually talk to them, or show interest in them, or strike a deal with them… that’s forbidden.

Dominos Before Re-signing Patrick Mahomes

Of course, a Chris Jones deal (or resolution) would have to be taken care of first.

Is there anything that needs to happen before that? Yes, a new CBA must be in place. Is there anything that has to happen before that? Yes, the players have to accept that new CBA.

In Andrew Brandt’s piece for Sport Illustrated called, “The Inequities of the Proposed CBA” he says”

“In this proposed CBA, Owners are enticing Players with $100 million in “new money” in 2020, largely through increases in minimum salaries. The Owners’ strategy is to please the majority of players who, they surmise, will find it hard to turn down an extra $100,000 for the uncertainty of a better deal down the road.”

With what I know about Millennials penchant for “readily following along with the group” it’s hard to see the majority of the league’s players standing up to the NFL owners, which is what I think should happen next. Brandt goes on to say,

“It is up to Player leadership, however, to look past the early enticements and diffuse, not instill, any fear mongering about turning down this deal.”

It’s a complex set of issues but the bottom line is, if the players, collectively, stand together — which I believe they should — and stand up to the owners to reject this well crafted, well leveraged (for the owners best interest), new CBA, then there will be a much longer timeline for players getting re-signed.

The players point of view is more credible than mine so, here’s 31 year old Sam Acho on the new CBA proposal.

More than 1,000 players have already voted. Apparently, many would like to change their votes, but are being denied that opportunity. This is not going to be a simple process by any means.

Once there is a new CBA in place: will there be anything else that stands in the way of Patrick Mahomes signing a new deal with the Chiefs and locking him up for the better part of the next decade? Yes, other QBs signing their deals first. Namely, Dak Prescott.

There’s a report out there which suggests that the Dallas Cowboys have given Dak Prescott an offer of $105M for a 3-year deal, averaging $35M per. However, the actual offer may only be for $33M per year but the important issue here for Chiefs fans is… a deal for Dak must get done BEFORE a deal for Mahomes can be finalized. Why? Because a — lesser — QB, Dak Prescott, must set the market, prior to the time a — greater — QB, Patrick Mahomes, does his deal. Then, the Chiefs will sign a new market-setting standard deal with Patrick. That’s just how the order of business is done in the NFL.

If the players approve a new CBA this week, it’s full steam ahead and I think the players will most likely pull the trigger on this deal. That makes this a big week coming up for the Chiefs, and their fans.

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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