Just In: Chris Jones, DT for the Kansas City Chiefs, Earns Contract Incentive for Tenth Sack

The Kansas City Chiefs ultimately decided to sit tight end Travis Kelce and quarterback Patrick Mahomes against the Los Angeles Chargers due to an excess of caution. Chris Jones, a defensive tackle, was able to pursue a contract incentive since they let him play.

After Jones successfully tackled Chargers quarterback Easton Stick in the third quarter, he reached the 10-sack mark for the 2023–24 season. In the process, he earned a tidy $1.25 million more after reaching 10.5 this season.

After reaching a new agreement in September, Jones was able to return to the team ahead of a Week 2 matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Having lost out on a lot of potential offseason revenue as well as a Week 1 game check due to his holdout, Jones was given some incentives under the revised agreement that could help him make up for what he had lost. If all went according to plan, Jones might have even received a raise above what he was originally expected to receive this season.

Jones reached his goals for 35 percent and fifty percent of the snaps played before the game even began on Sunday. It brought him a total of $2 million. He now has $3.25 million in incentives won after his tenth sack, but he still needs to put in more work if he wants to soar even higher. In addition to missing out on a $2 million bonus for winning the Super Bowl and being named Defensive Player of the Year, he also lost out on a $500,000 incentive for 15 sacks. Although it will require a lot of effort from the team and the player alike, it is still feasible that he will receive $1 million for making the first team All-Pro and appearing in the Super Bowl.

Jones put a lot of effort into earning his incentive-triggering sack. At the time of his big play, the All-Pro defensive lineman had recorded 12 pressures on 31 pass-rush attempts, according Next Gen Stats. This year’s record for the most pressures in a single game was tied with that number.

I discussed Jones’ gamble during the holdout and the reasons it hasn’t fully paid off thus far in an earlier post on Arrowhead Report:

The 29-year-old’s future with the Chiefs is still up in the air, although communication between his camp and the organization is said to be cordial. The team would find it difficult to accept a huge franchise tag price in 2024, but it would also find it difficult to accept a long-term agreement at a particular cost. Expectations for his market are still high; Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus is anticipating a four-year, $120 million megadeal, while Spotrac’s computed market value has him at $28.1 million annually. Jones’s wager on himself won’t have been in vain if one of those turns out to be true. But for months, he’s been balancing on an extremely thin line. Reverting to initial conditions appears to be the most probable course of action in this case.