Travis Kelce Directly Addresses Chris Jones, and Things Don’t Sound Promising

The 2023 NFL season hasn’t officially arrived yet, but certain storylines are already looming large. One of those is Chris Jones and his holdout. The Kansas City Chiefs enter the season as strong Super Bowl favorites—having an elite quarterback and coach will do that—but Jones’ absence leaves a gaping hole in an already iffy defense.

Those stakes mean that everyone, whether you’re rooting for KC or hoping to see them falter, is looking for an update. On the latest episode of the New Heights podcast, Travis Kelce provided one.

Well, sort of.

While the tight end didn’t really offer any new information, the tone and content of his statement didn’t sound very positive from the Chiefs’ perspective. If anything, he seemed to be in the dark and almost bargaining with Jones to return.

Kelce is understandably hoping for Jones to return

During their time in the media spotlight, the Kelce brothers—Travis and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason—have proved to be more than capable of speaking their minds. To that end, it’s unsurprising that Travis was asked about the Chris Jones holdout while recording the August 31 episode of the brothers’ New Heights.

“Oh man, Chris, can you please come back,” the tight end said in a mock-emotional voice. “You’re really scaring me, man.”

And while Kelce’s tongue was planted firmly in his cheek during those comments, he did (literally) change his tone to share some more thoughts.

“I don’t get it,” he continued. “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 me bargaining you to just come back and play football for the Chiefs. We need you. We need you bad. And I don’t know what the situation is.”

After speaking directly to Jones, No. 87 also circled back to underscore his point.

“He’s the best defensive player in the league right now,” Kelce added. “And he’s deserving of all the money in the world. Chris, I love you. Please come back. Now.”

The comments don’t sound encouraging

In fairness to Kelce, he’s not someone to take the microphone only to spout bland cliches. It wouldn’t be within his character to go on his podcast, be asked about Chris Jones, and simply say, ‘I can’t comment on that, but we hope he’ll be with us soon.’ At the same time, though, Kelce’s comments don’t exactly paint a rosy picture of what’s going on behind the scenes.

Setting aside the “scaring me” section, which seems more like joking around than anything else, let’s unpack the rest of the statement.

“I don’t get it. You must know something I don’t because I just don’t get it.”

Even if we want to give this the most charitable reading, it suggests that Kelce and Jones haven’t really communicated this offseason. That would seem to support Andy Reid’s statement during training camp that there hadn’t been communication with Jones and, therefore, the head coach didn’t have any insight into the holdout.

Could there be an element of PR at play? Sure, someone like Kelce isn’t going to come out and say that his teammate’s demands are reasonable and the team should just pay him. At the same time, though, this is a second key member of the Chiefs essentially saying, “I don’t know what’s going on there,” which isn’t an ideal thing when you consider that a compromise is essential for the lineman to return to action.

“I really want to get another Super Bowl ring with you, brother. This is me bargaining you to just come back and play football for the Chiefs. We need you. We need you bad.”

Kelce literally uses the word bargaining here, and that’s what this feels like. The tight end knows how important Jones is, and wants him back in the lineup.

Would that sort of personal appeal be necessary if an agreement was on the horizon? Probably not.

“And I don’t know what the situation is.”

Again, Kelce could be playing things smart and avoiding picking a side, but this is the second time that he suggests he’s in the dark about Jones’ demands. You would think that teammates who have won multiple Super Bowls together would be in touch, even if they’re not working together at the moment.

“He’s the best defensive player in the league right now. And he’s deserving of all the money in the world. Chris, I love you. Please come back. Now.”

There are two different ways to read this, and neither is ideal. On one hand, you could interpret the “deserving” comment as Kelce advocating for the Chiefs to stop stalling and settle up with Jones. Maybe Kelce does know something about what’s being said behind closed doors and doesn’t like his team’s position.

Alternatively, this could be the tight end doubling down on his personal appeal to Jones. Perhaps things are at an inflection point, and Kelce wants to ensure that the defensive stopper knows how much he matters to the guys in the locker room.

Again, we’re reading tea leaves at this point and trying to piece together any Jones-related clue available. But even with that caveat, Kelce does not sound like a man who’s confident that his teammate will be back anytime soon. There are a variety of interview approaches to take, ranging from making vague statements to simply passing on the question, but that’s what happened on New Heights.

Instead, the Kansas City Chiefs’ second-most famous player took the microphone and publicly bargained with Chris Jones, asking him to end his holdout.

Even with all the disclaimers and skepticism in the world, that doesn’t suggest things are happy at Arrowhead.

This post was originally published on this site