Report: Chiefs to officially franchise tag Chris Jones on Monday

The Kansas City Chiefs will franchise tag defensive tackle Chris Jones on Monday, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

This had been expected since late February but Monday’s tweet confirms to move. Herbie Teope of The Kansas City Star later noted the tag to be non-exclusive (more on that here).

There are now three options: Jones will either sign a new contract with the Chiefs, play for a season on the franchise tag or have his rights traded to a new team — with which he will negotiate a new deal.

The tag does not necessarily mean Jones will play for Kansas City this season. The Chiefs tagged edge rusher Dee Ford last offseason and then traded him to the San Francisco 49ers for a second-round pick. The Seattle Seahawks tagged edge rusher Frank Clark last offseason, only to trade him to the Chiefs for a first-round pick and a second-round pick.

Jones last tweeted from his official account on Friday.

As we wrote Friday morning, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid sounded uncertain about Jones when he was interviewed on 610 Sports Radio’s “Fescoe in the Morning.”

“Chris is a part of this team, a big part of this team — he helped us get where we were,” said Reid, before pivoting. “It’s crazy because in this business, we’re all expendable. That’s been proven over and over again. On the other hand, you’d like to keep everybody. But that’s not real. So would we like to keep Chris? Sure. But things happen in this business, and we’re all players and coaches. We’re all used to that, and so if he’s here, great, man. That’s a great thing. If he’s not, we’re going to keep plowing, man, and keep moving on, and we expect somebody else to step up and fill in that position. We get all of that... You’ve been in this thing long enough, I think we understand that. I think the fans understand that.”

According to CBS Sports cap expert Joel Corry, if Jones were to play on the franchise tag for 2020, he would make just above $16 million.