The long wait is over. Starting this Thursday with preseason games taking place throughout the NFL, football is back after five months off and perhaps the most entertaining off-season in the league’s history. For the beloved Chiefs, their preseason kicks off against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, August 13. While the Chiefs are practicing today, my expectation is that we will not see the starters for a long period of time if they decide to play at all on Sunday so it’s worth monitoring. The overarching question we all want an answer to: when will Chris Jones return? More on that in a minute.
From the Saints perspective, they look to rebound after a subpar season last year going 7-10. Former Las Vegas Raiders Derek Carr signed with them this off season and there are unknowns surrounding the roster. Running back Alvin Kamara was suspended for three regular season games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy and wide receiver Michael Thomas has had ups and downs with injuries the last few seasons. Could this be a bounce back year for him?
AFC is STACKED
Last season of course, Kansas City won Super Bowl 57 against the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles, and with the roster intact, expectations are to repeat. The AFC as a whole has gotten more competitive with the New York Jets adding future hall-of-fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers, not to mention the Buffalo Bills with Josh Allen and the Cincinnati Bengals with Joe Burrow. Even within the AFC West, the Los Angeles Chargers with star QB Justin Herbert leading a potent offense and the defensive stud that is Joey Bosa. It’s going to be quite a test this year for Kansas City.
Chris Jones
As of now, nothing has changed for a contract extension for Jones. He posted a tweet over the weekend that was extremely cryptic saying “KC… I love you”. Draw your own conclusions with that tweet as you see fit. I’m just the messenger. On Monday, general manager Brett Veach told The Kansas City Star that he wants the star defensive lineman back: “He deserves a big contract and I don’t think there’s any surprises in that regard. There are just some hurdles we have to work through in regards to how we keep this thing going for the short and long term”. Veach was also adamant that he has no intentions of trading Jones, nor should they. The waiting game continues. Last year, Jones tied his career high in sacks with 15.5. Speaking of Chris Jones, he was one of three Kansas City Chiefs to make the NFL’s Top 100 Players list for 2023.
Three Chiefs Make Top 100 List
Over the last week, the NFL unveiled its list of the top 100 players, as voted on by the players themselves. No surprise as to which Chiefs players made the list. Chris Jones was ranked at number 10 which is a huge jump from where he was ranked in 2022. In 2022, he was ranked 39th. Travis Kelce was ranked fifth this year after having been ranked 10th the year before. It’s easy to come up with who ranked as the NFL’s best player: Patrick Mahomes. It’ll be hard to top what he did last year throwing for 5,250 yards, 41 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. As long as he stays healthy, it’s going to be hard for anyone to remove him from the throne as the league’s best player.
