KC Chiefs: Ranking Chris Jones’ top five performances ever

1. Week 14 of 2021 vs. the Las Vegas Raiders

In my humble opinion, the best game that Chris Jones has played in the NFL was one where the defense as a unit played one of their best games, start to finish, in a while for a defense that had been ridiculed all season to that point.

The Chiefs won 48-9 over the Las Vegas Raiders in what now is the biggest blowout win that the Chiefs have had in the Andy Reid era (39 points). The defense forced 5 turnovers (including 4 fumble recoveries) and a recovered fumble for a touchdown in the first play of the game by Mike Hughes. One of the reasons this game was dominant for the Chiefs is because arguably their best defensive player, Chris Jones, had the most dominant game of his NFL career to that point.

According to the box score, this may not be one of his better games, but there’s a reason why many say the box score doesn’t tell the whole story. Despite only recording 0.5 sacks, he recorded a career-high ten pressures on Derek Carr, plus a QB hit, per PFF. In addition, according to PFF, Jones recorded the highest pass-rush win rate of his entire NFL career at 41.9%.

His dominant game also helped fuel the Raiders’ horrendous PFF team pass-blocking grade of 38.7. It also contributed to rookie Alex Leatherwood’s overall grade of 28.8, the lowest of his season, including a 0.0 (YES, 0.0/100) grade in pass blocking. Leatherwood also had a horrific 88.8 pass-blocking efficiency. For reference, over an entire season, an average guard will have a pass-blocking efficiency of around 96.5-97.5%, while the lowest of all guards with at least 200 pass-blocking snaps is 94.2%.

We don’t know when Chris Jones’ last game as a Kansas City Chief will be, but we do know that he’s had no shortage of dominant performances. He’s on a Hall of Fame track, and in my opinion, is about two more great-to-dominant seasons away from becoming close to a lock for a gold jacket.

What do you think was Chris Jones’ best game in Kansas City? Which game(s) did I omit? Feel free to let me know in the comment section or on Twitter (@StrozinskyLucas).