If Titans miss on Jadeveon Clowney, they should trade for Kansas City Chiefs, Chris Jones
By Will Lomas
Why now?
This may seem like it is coming out of nowhere, but the reason this is being talked about is because Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid just had a press conference earlier today where he was asked a lot of questions about Chris Jones.
Nowhere in that press conference did he say that Chris Jones wouldn’t be traded and that just builds on speculation. See, instead of signing Chris Jones to a long deal the Chiefs opted to give him the franchise tag heading into this free agency period.
This has led some to say that he might hold out for a bigger contract that he has certainly earned given his productivity over the last two years.
The reason the Chiefs didn’t give him a new deal is simple: they couldn’t. With hundreds of dollars (not hundreds of millions, just hundreds) in cap space, the Chiefs are already going to have to make some decisions before the NFL Draft. If they don’t then the league will start voiding contracts until the Chiefs are under the cap.
So, that means that they can make some cuts or they can make some trades, but if you make that move just to get under the cap for the draft then you still haven’t solved the problem of whether or not Chris Jones will play for you in 2020.
To get that answered you would have to give him a contract and right now I would assume that he is going to make north of $20 million per year. So, that means that the Chiefs would have to make cuts and trades until they have about $25 million at least.
If they decide to trade Jones, they are immediately under the cap because they don’t have to worry about the franchise tag and they will be able to retain the bulk of their team from last year’s Super Bowl run.
After all of that, I can’t help but wonder if the Tennessee Titans could make an offer. But would the Titans trade away an expensive tackle to make a move for a defensive tackle who will cost twice as much?