KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Chris Jones holdout entered day 42 on Friday, and after tight end Travis Kelce issued a plea to his teammate to return, head coach Andy Reid says he wasn’t going to criticize his defensive star.
“Everybody makes their own decisions, I mean, that’s the way it is in life and that’s the way it is in football,” Reid said. “Certain guys do it one-way, certain guys do it another way. Chris has chosen to go this route, some other guys have chosen to get their deals done and come in and play. Listen, I am not here to criticize one way or the other. We’ve had a lot of success with the guys that we have and we go with it.”
Reid said he still has no expectation for when Jones will end his holdout but reiterated talks remain ongoing between general manager Brett Veach and the Jones camp.
“No, there’s no indication, either way,” he said. “They talked the other day, I know Brett filled you in on that so I’m just working with the guys we have and making sure we’re set there.”
Kelce, on his New Heights podcast with brother Jason Kelce, made a plea for Jones to return to work.
“Ah, man, Chris, can you please come back?” Travis said. “You’re really scaring me, man. I don’t get it. You must know something that I don’t know because I just don’t get it. I really want to get another Super Bowl ring with you, brother. This is just me bargaining you to just come back and play football for the Chiefs. Please, we need you, we need you bad. And I don’t know what the situation is.”
After Jason joked about Jones ending his holdout after his Philadelphia Eagles team visits Kansas City in Week 11, Travis praised Jones and renewed his plea.
“He’s the best defensive player in the league right now, and he’s deserving of all the money in the world,” Travis said. “Chris, I love you, please come back now.”
If Jones doesn’t report to the club by the end of the day Friday, he will have accumulated $2.1 million in fines since the start of training camp. While the Jones holdout continues casting a shadow on the Chiefs as the enter game-week preparations for their opener against Detroit, Reid emphasized the need to worry about the matters at hand.
“My standpoint is we’ve got a heck of a Lions team coming in here and with the guys we’ve got we’re going to get those guys ready to play against the Lions and I know they’ll be fired up to play,” Reid said. “Other than that, I take the distractions and throw them out the door and let’s get on with what’s real and that means the guys that are here, you know, the Lions are going to show up with a good football team.”
Reid didn’t commit to a timetable for how much of an acclimation or ramp-up period Jones would need if and when he rejoins the club. He said the team would “play it by ear after that.”
“One thing about Chris is that he keeps himself in good shape so I would anticipate – I haven’t seen him – but I’d anticipate that he’d come back in relatively good shape. Just kind of getting himself, working himself into football shape. As long as he’s physically in good shape, you can kind of start working him in and getting him going.”
On Wednesday, Veach was still optimistic a resolution was possible before Week 1.
“I mean, listen, I’m certainly hopeful for that,” Veach said. “We have been in communication, and actually, just the last few days, we’ve been in more communication. So we’re going to continue to press on and work hard and a lot of respect on both sides of this thing.”
Reid declined to say whether he’s prepared to take an active role in negotiations to end the stalemate.
“I’m not going to get into that, whether I’ve been involved or not involved. This is ongoing, I think (General Manager) Brett (Veach) explained it the best, it’s an ongoing thing. Right now obviously my focus is on what we’ve got here – you guys have been around me long enough to know how I roll with that. That’s where I’m going. I let Brett do his job and his guys over there, I have full trust in them and the way they are going about it.”
