Chris Jones finally looked like the wrecking ball the Chiefs have been waiting for, and the strange part is that it began with him doing something he wasn’t supposed to do.
On a day when Kansas City rolled past the New York Jets 35-12, Jones turned in his best performance of the season with two sacks and a level of disruption that had been missing from his game. The twist, as Jesse Newell of The Athletic reported, was that the breakthrough started when Jones lined up in the wrong spot.
He was supposed to be inside, with linebacker Drue Tranquill outside, but the two swapped roles. Jones explained the move on the team’s post-game video show, and he also admitted he knew Steve Spagnuolo was going to be furious about the freelancing on a key third down. Instead, the gamble helped spark the kind of outing Kansas City has been waiting to see from him.
Jones made sure nobody mistook the performance for a fluke, either.
“I’m still Chris Jones, man. Don’t let it fool you,” Jones told play-bypplay announcer Mitch Holthus. “I’m still Chris Jones.”
That confidence matched the production. Newell reported that Jones came into the game with career lows in pressures, but against the Jets he delivered a season-high six pressures, two sacks and 29 pass rushes, according to Next Gen Stats.
Three of those pressures came in under 2.5 seconds. That effort earned him AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors for Week 9.
Joe Cullen may have been even more taken with a different snap. In the first quarter, with the Jets facing third-and-six just outside the red zone, Jones used a swim move to get into quarterback Geno Smith’s face.
Smith had to hurry the throw and missed receiver Adonai Mitchell, who was open and had a step on the defender. Cullen called it a “great rush,” and then said Jones “dominated the game.”
The ripple effect was obvious across the Chiefs defense. Kansas City posted a season-high 50 percent pressure rate against the Jets, along with a season-high five sacks, per Next Gen Stats. George Karlaftis added two sacks of his own, giving the Chiefs a pass rush that looked far more dangerous than it had for much of the season.
If Jones keeps playing like this, the Chiefs will look a lot different this Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons and beyond.
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Kahlil Benson Has Become A Chiefs Answer They Desperately Needed
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Bensons game is still a work in progress, particularly in pass protection, but the Chiefs have clearly found value in his durability and his work in the run game. In a season where the front has been tested repeatedly, his rise has been one of the quieter but more useful developments for an offense trying to keep itself on schedule. [Read more 🡒]