Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones had a goal to lead the league in sacks this season during training camp. Will he make it?
The Kansas City Chiefs have struggled the last two seasons when it came to getting after the quarterback, but that is not the case in 2018. Most of those struggles came to injuries between Justin Houston and Dee Ford, but some of that came to lack of development. Regardless, the Chiefs have remained near the top of the league in sacks this season. While both of the aforementioned players before have been solid this season, the total couldn’t have been reached without defensive lineman Chris Jones.
Many fans have believed that Jones struggled last season, or at the very least, he wasn’t very productive. Given his 6.5 sacks from a season ago when the team was one of the worst in the league at bringing down the quarterback, there was an argument to be made. The truth of the matter is, however, he saw a lot more double teams in his second season and still had some development to undergo before he took his game to the next level.
Well, he’s done that and more if you look at his 2018 season. Jones came into the season dropping around 25 pounds over the offseason. He stated in an interview back in April that he wanted to be more successful when he’s asked to line up on the outside. When the Chiefs were at training camp, Jones mentioned that his goal for the season was to lead the league in sacks.
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At the time it sounded like typical preseason talk (when everyone says they feel better than ever), but considering his performance this season, everyone has to consider the possibility. It’s apparent that Jones is faster this season as he continues to get the best of interior offensive linemen. During the loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night, Jones continued to increase the NFL record of most consecutive games with a sack to ten games.
With 14 sacks on the season, Jones sits behind only that of Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald in sacks who holds 16.5. Donald tied the NFL record for sacks by a lineman over 300 pounds in a single season that was held by Warren Sapp. Following the performance we saw against the Chargers, Jones could surpass that record this season as well.
When discussing defensive tackles, the most well-known names tend to be Donald and Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle, Fletcher Cox. Donald tends to be a whole different kind of animal from the rest of the league, but Jones isn’t that far off when it comes to this season. Both players are having a career-high in sack totals this season.
In fact, Pro Football Focus mentioned in a recent article that in the last five games, Jones’ and Donald’s grades are almost identical. Much like Donald, Jones is an athletic freak that tends to just defy physics throughout the game. There’s no question that he has jaw-dropping plays in every game this year. That goes double for his recent game against the Chargers when he finished with 2.5 sacks and an incredible eight quarterback hits.
While Donald has the lead at the moment, it’s not too far off for Jones to take over. He sits in fourth place tied with Myles Garrett at the moment, which is not bad company to have. With the loss on Thursday night, Jones will likely have to play at least most of the Week 17 game against Oakland, giving him more snaps to try and surpass those above him.