OXNARD, Calif. – The Dallas Cowboys have signed punter and Carson-Newman football alum Chris Jones to a four-year contract extension through the 2021 season.
The four-year extension is worth $8.7M, sources told Ian Rapoport, with $4.5M guaranteed. It's Jones' third contract.
Should he finish out the contract, it would make Jones the longest-tenured NFL player in the school's history. Jones just finished year six in the league. Completing the contract would tie him with Sanders Shiver, who spent 10 years playing professional football, eight with the Baltimore Colts and the final two years of his career with the Miami Dolphins.
Jones, who had one year remaining on his deal, set a career high last season with a 45.9-yard punt average, including a 66-yarder that dribbled out of bounds at the Eagles' 1-yard line in the regular-season finale. He now has the all-time highest percentage of punts downed inside the 20-yard line (39.9 percent) in team history.
Jones' most memorable play was a de-cleating hit on Detroit Lions punt returner Andre Roberts in Week 16. He also showed he could gain yardage as well as stop forward progress: his 30-yard run on a fake punt in Week 8 was the fourth-longest run by an NFL punter in 30 yards and set up a field goal in the Cowboys' overtime win over the Eagles
