Five genius changes that saved the KC Chiefs season

Moved Chris Jones inside

Before the season, one of the more important subplots coming into the season was the experiment that Steve Spagnuolo was willing to try by putting Chris Jones outside as a defensive end. The goal was to gain versatility up front while also making Jones happy since he’d wanted to play outside for years in K.C.

Here was the problem: Jones is a one-man wrecking crew known in NFL circles as the best interior defensive lineman not named Aaron Donald. He’s a beast who can handle double teams and causes offensive coordinators to have to scheme around him. He also frees up his teammates to disrupt the pocket and make plays in the backfield just with his presence in the middle.

When Jones was not in the middle, it not only highlight what little Jarran Reed had to offer in the early going but it also nullified his own impact for the most part. Jones had two sacks in the Chiefs’ season-opening win over the Cleveland Browns but he was silent from there through the next few weeks. A wrist injury certainly did not help, but what has made the biggest difference was the Chiefs’ willingness to push Jones back inside for most downs. Jones is back to being the All-Pro talent inside, which is making others like Clark and Melvin Ingram look very good themselves.