Chris Jones didn't partake in a single training camp practice last year whilst holding out for a new contract.
This time around, he's not angling for another contract, but he is hoping to take some more days off from camp.
The soon-to-be 30-year-old defensive dynamo is coming off his second straight All-Pro campaign and believes some light work in the dog days of summer could prove beneficial. He said just as much to head coach Andy Reid recently and is waiting to see how it all plays out.
"I've already been talking to Andy about, 'Let me skip out on training camp. I'm a little older, right?'" Jones told The Kansas City Star’s Jesse Newell on Wednesday from the defensive lineman's youth football camp. "I can feel it. I can feel when we have a day on training camp. Give me like two days off and one day on then, and we maybe can work something out, you know?"
According to Jones, he's still awaiting Big Red's final answer.
"He just looked at me," said Jones, who turns 30 on July 3. "So the conversation is still ongoing."
Jones held out of training camp last year along with the Chiefs' Week 1 game -- a loss to the Detroit Lions -- as he vied for a new contract. Jones and Kansas City agreed to a one-year deal in September, a Band-Aid of sorts. Jones promptly delivered his fifth straight Pro Bowl season, posting 10.5 sacks and 29 QB hits before once again providing clutch performances aplenty during the Chiefs' Super Bowl run. Along with celebrating his third Super Bowl triumph, Jones also got the massive extension he'd been hoping for when he inked a five-year, $158 million deal that made him the richest interior defensive lineman in the league -- both in total salary and average annual value.
Long the face of the Chiefs defense, Jones has an argument for being the best defensive player in the NFL, all the more so when considering the big plays he has made postseason after postseason.
So, perhaps a little less wear and tear in the summer wouldn't hurt. It didn't seem to at season's end in 2023.
"If I'm able to do a day on, a day off, or a day on and a half a day (off), I can do that," Jones said. "I think it's pretty fun."
Regardless of negotiations in the past or sitting out practices past and future, Jones is adamant that his approach has always been unchanged. He's looking to get into the best shape possible and put the Chiefs in the best position possible to win it all.
"The mindset is always the same: being in the best shape you could be in, find a way to interact with the community, but also better yourself, doing a good deed a week," Jones said. "I don't think my mindset ever changed, year in and year out [through different contract situations]. Just I get a little wiser. I get a few more gray hairs. And we're gonna keep this thing going."
