Kansas City Chiefs Rookie Profile: Chris Jones
If you put on any of the games available for Chris Jones that I watched I can promise that you will see two things. First, you will see Jones display incredible explosion off the line. He is routinely in the backfield before opposing offenses know what happened. The second thing you will see is Jones take plays off.
Some plays Jones just doesn’t have the same speed getting off the line, other plays Jones will start fast and as soon as he sees that the play isn’t coming his way he lets up and dogs it until the play is over. The good news is that when Jones plays to his full potential he is an elite player. So if KC can find a way to tap into that elite upside Jones should be a Pro Bowler.
The thing that was puzzling was that there didn’t really seem to be any rhyme or reason to why Jones gave great effort on some plays and not so great on others. I thought maybe it would be connected to him getting tired with great effort early and running out of steam late, but that wasn’t the case. The following clips are from his game against Arkansas.
The first clip is from the very beginning of the game. You can see Jones try and go around the outside but there is very little hustle in his feet and when he sees that he isn’t likely to get to the quarterback he basically gives up even before the ball is released. It’s certainly not the worst thing you’ll ever see and could easily go unnoticed, but I think its a good example of Jones not giving his all.
Next: More film...