Chiefs News: Chris Jones is hoping for some days off from training camp

A year ago, superstar defensive tackle Chris Jones skipped the offseason program, training camp and the season’s opening game as he and the Kansas City Chiefs negotiated a new contract.

Ultimately, the two sides agreed on a stopgap one-year deal to get Jones back on the field. Then in early March, he and the team finally signed a five-year, $159 million contract that included $95 million in guarantees.

Even after missing all that practice time last season, Jones still earned a second consecutive first-team All-Pro nod. He’ll turn 30 before the team opens its 2024 training camp at Missouri Western State Univerity in St. Joseph in mid-July — and he’s hoping that under the circumstances, head coach Andy Reid will let him skip some practices.

“Listen man, I’ve already been talking to Andy about, ‘Let me skip out on training camp. I’m a little older, right?’” he told reporters during his youth football camp in Overland Park this week, per the Kansas City Star. “I can feel it. I can feel when we have a day on training camp. Give me like two days off and one day on, then — and we maybe can work something out, you know?”

It doesn’t appear that Reid is enthusiastic about the idea.

“He just looked at me,” smiled Jones. “So the conversation is still ongoing.”

However much time he spends on the practice field in St. Joseph, Jones thinks his approach will remain the same.

“The mindset is always the same: being in the best shape you could be in, [finding] a way to interact with the community — but also better yourself — doing a good deed a week,” he said. “I don’t think my mindset ever changed, year in and year out [through different contract situations]. [It’s] just [that] I get a little wiser; I get a few more gray hairs.

“And we’re gonna keep this thing going.”

Players will begin reporting the week of July 15. We’ll get our first look at a training camp session on Sunday, July 21. Here’s the full schedule.