Andy Reid answers sharply when asked about Chris Jones’ OTAs absence

Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones was among the team’s absentees on day three of organized team activities (OTAs) Thursday. This was fully expected, as earlier this week, we shared the report from friend-of-the-site Terez Paylor of Yahoo! Sports.

It appears (via trusty ol’ Instagram) that Jones is instead working out in Miami.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was asked about the dialogue between him and Jones after his absence on Thursday.

“I don’t know that—I don’t know how they’re talking to him,” he said initially.

“Oh, you’re talking about me? I haven’t talked to him... we don’t get into that (Jones’ attendance). We just go. You’re here, you get better. You’re not, you don’t.”

This answer should be expected from Reid, who has historically avoided commenting on missing players, but the sentiment was clear—obviously, he’d rather Jones be with the team.

As a reminder, OTAs are voluntary, though players historically use attendance (or lack thereof) as a method of pushing along contract talks.

We’ve noted before that Jones is due to make a $1.19 million base salary in 2019, according to Over the Cap. He projects to make somewhere between $18 million and $22 million a year under a new contract.

I wouldn’t expect to see Jones at all during OTAs. Things will get more interesting June 11, which is the first day of the Chiefs’ mandatory minicamp.

Jones had 15.5 sacks, 29 quarterback hits, 40 tackles (35 solo), five passes defensed, two forced fumbles and one interception for a touchdown in 2018.