Outcomes of Chris Jones’ Holdout: Those Who Benefited and Those Who Suffered – Top

One of the biggest (and most unwanted) storylines coming out of the Kansas City Chiefs organization this summer has been the holdout of Chris Jones and the ongoing negotiations toward a new long-term deal. At this point, no one is quite sure when Jones will return to the team, but he’s missed every bit of mandatory minicamp and every single day of training camp in St. Joseph with less than one week to go.

At this point, the absence of Jones has begun to affect plenty of sides here. No man is an island and the choices that Jones is making (or has made) are taking effect on those around him. In the end, he might get what he wants, which would make him a “winner” in his book, but would others feel the same? It’s hard to say.

As the Chiefs and Jones continue to haggle over the final price on a long-term contract, let’s look at the winners and the losers of Chris Jones’s holdout from the Chiefs so far.

Let’s start this list by being selfish and thinking of the fans first, because despite their/our position on the outside of all of this, Chiefs Kingdom is still among the “losers” in this affair.

This might be nitpicky, but we already said we’re thinking of fans first hre, and the truth is that fans have missed out on weeks and weeks of seeing Chris Jones do his thing. There have been no autographs or interactions, no updates or cool camp moments. What makes training camp so fun is seeing fans, especially younger ones, get up close with their favorite players and Jones is definitely one of those.

Instead, Jones was not only absent, but he turned himself into a talking point—and not in a good way. He became a cloud hanging over Chiefs camp and a negative distraction for fans. We’ll get to more specific ways in which this should have been a feel-good summer for all—fans included—but for now it’s just important to note that Chiefs Kingdom lost something in all of this as well.