Lights. Cameras. Missing in action.

As the Kansas City Chiefs return to the prime-time stage on Thursday night to christen a new NFL season – and unfurl a Super Bowl 57 championship banner – it comes with quite the awkward subplot.

Barring a sudden shift in the windfall of dollars, the Chiefs will begin defense of their Super Bowl crown without their best defensive player as All-Pro D-tackle Chris Jones continues to hold out for a big, new payday.

After months of headlines across the NFL landscape involving star players and sticky contract situations – from Lamar Jackson to the running backs, Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs and Jonathan Taylor – it seems rather destined that a key cog for the defending champs would miss the curtain call.

And Jones, of course, isn’t the only star defensive player heading into Week 1 with a big question mark concerning his availability.

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Where’s Nick Bosa? The reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, who led the league with 18 ½ sacks last season, is holding out from the San Francisco 49ers as the clock ticks toward the opener on Sunday at Pittsburgh. And the Carolina Panthers, preparing for an opener at Atlanta, suddenly have a situation with star outside linebacker Brian Burns, who reported to training camp and practiced all summer but is now "holding in" and now not practicing while apparently seeking a new contract.

Bosa and Burns are both under contract, tagged with the fifth-year option on their rookie deals. Bosa is due $17.859 million for the season; Burns’ figure is at $16.012 million.

Jones, meanwhile, has one year remaining on his four-year, $80 million contract, with a base salary of $19.5 million.

Yes, the NFL can give you last-minute drama with so many close games on the field…and no shortage of intrigue off the field when it comes to the new money.

With the Chiefs playing in the kickoff game, hosting the Detroit Lions at Arrowhead, the Jones case looms as the first critical, contract-related swing factor to surface in Week 1. At least.

Sure, Patrick Mahomes is the ace drawing card, the reason we can’t get enough of watching the Chiefs. But Jones, undeniably one of the NFL’s premier defensive tackles and coming off a season in which he matched his career high with 15 ½ sacks, is the most important player on a defense that relies on his relentless inside pass rush and a salty, intense presence.

In averaging $20 million per year, Jones is hardly making chump change. Yet he barely ranks among the top 10 defensive tackles for average pay. While Los Angeles Rams star Aaron Donald tops the D-tackle chart at $31.67 million per year, Jones, 29, seeks a deal that would make him the second-highest paid defensive tackle, per multiple reports. Whether he blinks first or not is the stuff that fuels a contract impasse.

When a user on X (formerly known as Twitter) asked Jones in late August when he might end his holdout, he responded: "Week 8."

Of course, deadlines sometimes can prompt urgency in contract negotiations. But what deadline? The start of the regular season may not be the cutoff in this scenario.

In any event, Chiefs All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce was moved enough to issue a public plea, which dropped over the weekend on the "New Heights" podcast that he hosts with his brother Jason.

"Chris, can you come back, please?" Kelce said. "You’re really scaring me, man. 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. Please, we need you."

While Kelce was probably genuine with his plea and likely expressed the sentiments of fans that make up Chiefs Kingdom, he also gift-wrapped a message that kisses up to Chiefs management.

What’s that about a player never talking about another player’s money? Kelce, as bad as he wants Jones back in the fold, broke “the code” with that bit of messaging.

Historically, fans have almost always taken the side of owners rather than players when it comes to contract disputes. The argument that a player “already has a contract” is a weak one when considering that players can out-perform deals as the market gets reset – the Rams tore up the final three years of Donald’s previous agreement upon re-signing him to a new, three-year, $95 million pact last year – and that salary cap casualties are part of the NFL system.

So, for Kelce to so boldly plead for Jones to return – even while declaring that his teammate deserved a bigger payday – provided some PR cover for Chiefs management that might be on the defensive if the stalemate continues.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid played it cool, as he tends to operate. Reid said, “I’m not here to criticize one way or the other.” He also said that he’d play it by ear when considering whether Jones would suit up for the opener if a deal was struck soon.

Then there’s Bosa’s case. John Lynch, the 49ers GM, has expressed an optimistic tone regarding the chances of striking a deal with the defensive end. It’s widely expected that Bosa will get a deal that tops the four-year, $112 million contract that T.J. Watt received from the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2021, which averages $28 million per year.

But when? If Bosa rejoins a unit that is largely intact after it ranked No. 1 in the NFL last season, it’s not inconceivable that he could immediately provide game-swinging impact. Two years ago, Watt signed his deal three days before Pittsburgh's season opener at Buffalo. Then he collected two sacks and forced a fumble to launch a campaign that ended with him tying the NFL record with 22 ½ sacks and earning NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors.

Burns has seemingly taken a different track, showing up for camp on time and undoubtedly hoping that it would help land a new deal. In explaining Burns’ absence from practice, Panthers coach Frank Reich mentioned that there’s "a business side" that certainly adds to the intrigue of Week 1.

Remembering Gil Brandt

Drew Pearson, who launched a Hall of Fame career after signing with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted rookie free agent from Tulsa in 1973, can surely vouch for the advantages that Gil Brandt enjoyed for many years as one of the NFL’s most prominent scouting innovators.

Brandt, inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2019, passed away Thursday at 91.

"He had such a knack for finding the personnel that Coach (Tom) Landry was looking for," Pearson told USA TODAY Sports. "And not just anybody. He found players with the intangibles that fit the system."

The Cowboys had 20 consecutive winning seasons before it went south in the 1980s.

Pearson recalled how Brandt lined him up with an apartment overlooking the team’s practice facility and a job loading semi-trucks in the months before his rookie training camp. The proximity to the practice site went a long way toward Pearson being available to work out consistently with Roger Staubach, developing rapport on and off the field that helped the rookie make the team. Staubach also went to Brandt and urged him to give Pearson a bonus on top of the $150 signing bonus – it was 1973 – he received after the draft. Brandt gave Pearson a $500 bonus.

Months later, after Pearson starred as a rookie, Brandt called him into his office and told him that he was due another bonus of $3,000 to supplement his $14,000 base salary.

When Pearson saw the check, it was for $2,500.

"I thought you were going to give me $3,000?" Pearson asked.

Brandt replied, "You know when I gave you that $500 bonus? We deducted that."

"That’s Gil Brandt and how he did things," Pearson said.

Pearson marveled at the keen memory that helped make Brandt successful as the Cowboys' personnel director, then with the latter stages of his career as an analyst for NFL.com.

Then there was another type of impact that ultimately helped Pearson blossom into a successful entrepreneur.

"A lot of times I didn’t like Gil when he was negotiating that contract," Pearson said. "But he was teaching me a lesson that stuck long after football: how to negotiate."

What’s with that number?

Lions receiver Marvin Jones Jr. is among 21 players on NFL active rosters wearing No. 0 this season after the NFL liberalized its uniform policy to allow for some not-so-conventional uniform changes.

Other notables who switched to zero: Linebackers Roquan Smith (Baltimore), Brian Burns (Carolina), Devin Bush (Seattle) and Marcus Davenport (Minnesota); receiver Calvin Ridley (Jacksonville) and running back D’Andre Swift (Philadelphia).

Jones, an 11^th-year pro, wore No. 11 the past two seasons with the Jaguars and during his previous stint with the Lions. When he broke into the NFL with the Bengals in 2012, he wore No. 82.

Why zero?

"I thought it was pretty cool," Jones said. "When it was available, my kids made the decision for me. So, that’s why I got the number."

Jones and his wife Jazmyn, are parents to six children, ranging in age from 2 to 14.

"I told them what the options were," Jones said, “and they said, ‘Go zero!’"

The Jones kids were inspired by a character, Sub-Zero, in the Mortal Kombat video game.

There’s surely a catch to this.

"They want me to do a Sub-Zero touchdown celebration," Jones said. "That’s why they wanted me to have the number. So, I guess I’ll do it."

Sub-what?

"Sub-Zero, he’s the ice man," Jones explained. "He does ‘The Freeze.’ So, maybe you’ll see some re-enactments."