The best games Chris Jones has ever played as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. Factors included sack totals, pressure totals, and PFF overall grades.
Chris Jones is almost certainly going to find his name within the Kansas City Chiefs‘ Ring of Honor when all is said and done. With 49.5 career sacks as an interior defensive lineman, he currently ranks 10th all-time in sacks in Chiefs history, with eighth place being a realistic goal by the end of the 2023 season.
After being drafted in the 2nd round of the 2016 NFL Draft, Chris Jones has since been to three Pro Bowls as well as being named to three 2nd team All-Pro appearances. He’s also recorded at least 7 sacks and at least 1 forced fumble in four consecutive seasons, dating back to 2018.
He’s had no shortage of incredible performances, with 9 career games with at least 2.0 sacks and 11 games with at least 3 QB hits. With that being said, I’ve decided to rank the five best overall games of his NFL career, in my humble opinion.
Let’s go over some ground rules:
- This is just my personal opinion/analysis.
- Regular season and playoff games are weighted the same.
- I decided to go with the best raw games, start to finish, and not games just because they had a single memorable play.
- I am also only factoring in individual performance by Chris Jones himself. So just because the Chiefs defense, or team as a whole, had a down game, that doesn’t disqualify that game from this list, as long as Jones had a strong performance on his own.
- I am also not using raw sack numbers alone to decide the quality of games. For example, Chris Jones’ single-game career-high in sacks does not appear on the list because one sack was due to Dak Prescott running out of bounds and Jones being the closest defender.
- Outside of my memory, the main criteria I used for determining the games included (but weren’t limited to) PFF overall grade, total pressures, and total sacks, with the latter two being slightly adjusted for snap count.
Now that we’ve got a better understanding of what kind of game it will take to appear on the list, let’s get started with a game that does have a memorable play from his career.
5. Week 2 of 2017 vs. the Philadelphia Eagles
Starting with a truly memorable game of Jones’ career, this game was unforgettable for reasons other than the defensive tackle.
First, this was the second time since Andy Reid came to Kansas City that the Chiefs played the Philadelphia Eagles. Second, this game saw the return of Doug Pederson to K.C. after leaving the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator position to become the Eagles’ new head coach a year and a half earlier. Third, after this victory, this became the second in the Andy Reid era, and the first time since 2014 for the Chiefs, that Kansas City beat both teams that ended up playing in the Super Bowl that season. The Chiefs almost blew the game after the Eagles got a hail-mary opportunity after successfully recovering an onside kick.
Relating to Chris Jones’ performance, in 32 snaps and 24 pass-rush snaps, he recorded 3 pressures and 2 sacks, per Pro Football Focus (PFF) (It should be noted that Pro Football Reference and ESPN both have Jones at 3 sacks for this game. This is due to PFF not crediting him for a sack on a play where he tackled Wentz after the Philadelphia QB picked up his own fumble at 0:39 of the third quarter and began to run). He also recorded his first career interception after Justin Houston deflected a Carson Wentz pass.
Another reason that this game made the list is that Jones recorded a 92.0 overall grade from PFF (with 90.0 considered “elite”), tied for the 4th highest of his career. In addition, this game is 1 of 9 where he recorded multiple sacks and 1 of 2 where he recorded an interception.
The next game on the list is one where the Chiefs’ offense was incredible for about 15 minutes, but the defense had one of their better games in a season that ended in a parade.
4. Week 2 of 2019 vs. the Oakland Raiders
This game was an odd one, mainly because the Chiefs managed to win by 18 points, despite not scoring at all in three of four quarters. In the Chiefs’ final game in Oakland, Patrick Mahomes, Mecole Hardman, and Demarcus Robinson went off for 28 points and 278 passing yards in the 2nd quarter, while the defense held Derek Carr and the Raiders offense to 0 points and 168 total yards after the 4:46 mark in the 1st quarter.
As for Jones, he had another great game. Per Pro Football Focus, in 51 total defensive snaps (with 38 pass-rush snaps), Jones had 9 total pressures (1 sack, 4 QB hits, and 4 hurries) with a batted pass mixed in.
Among other pass rushers (with at least 15 pass-rush snaps) that week, Jones had the second most pressures, most QB hits, the third-highest pass-rush win rate, and the highest overall pass-rush grade, per PFF. For his effort, he earned a 91.9 overall grade, including a 93.7 when pass rushing.
The next game on the list is one where the Chiefs offense, and Patrick Mahomes in particular, had a bad day, but Chris Jones and the defense had one of their best games of that season.
3. Week 16 of 2020 vs. the Atlanta Falcons
The overall game here wasn’t satisfying, but that doesn’t mean that individual players didn’t have exceptional performances themselves.
This game was ugly since it’s never fun when a 13-1 team struggles with a 4-10 team at home. The Falcons were competitive, unfortunately, until the very end. They dropped a potential game-ending interception in the end zone and then Patrick Mahomes proceeded to throw a bullet to Demarcus Robinson for the eventual game-winning touchdown, to help redeem what was a very un-Mahomes-like game. The Falcons then missed a game-tying field goal that would have sent the game to OT.
Now onto Chris Jones. This was a great game by the interior defensive lineman. In 49 defensive snaps (including 32 pass-rush snaps), he had 1 sack, 3 QB hits, and 4 hurries for a total of 8 pressures. He also had a batted pass against Matt Ryan.
Among all pass rushers in Week 16 of 2020 (with at least 15 pass-rush snaps), Jones had the highest overall PFF pass-rushing grade at 94.3, the highest percentage of “wins” on pass-rushing snaps at 39.3%, and the 4th highest Pass Rush Productivity at 16.1, all per Pro Football Focus. He also had an overall grade of 92.1.
While true that the Falcons didn’t have a great pass protection unit for Matt Ryan that season, it was still arguably Jones’ best game of that season.
The next game on the list had an ugly ending, which included one of the biggest regular-season Chiefs chokes in the Mahomes era, but Chris Jones can’t be blamed.
2. Week 15 of 2018 vs. the Los Angeles Chargers
This is a game that many Chiefs fans would like to forget. After going up 14 with 8:15 left in the game, the Chiefs’ defense managed to allow two 60+ yard touchdown drives (plus a 2-point conversion) to the Chargers to not only lose the game but allow those same Chargers to tie in the division standings. The Chiefs would have officially clinched the division title after that game if they would have held on to win. They, of course, would go on to win the division anyway after the Chargers lost to the Baltimore Ravens the following week.
Even though the defense had a forgetful game overall, Jones still had a great game himself, especially in pass-rushing situations. According to PFF, Jones was in on 3 sacks, hit Philip Rivers five times (Pro Football Reference credited him with 8 QB hits that game), and had an additional hurry for 9 total pressures in 36 pass-rush snaps for an overall grade of 89.6 (91.8 in pass-rushing snaps). He also batted 1 Philip Rivers pass.
Despite the loss, per PFF, Jones had the highest pass-rush productivity (20.0) that week among all pass rushers in addition to the second-highest overall pass-rushing grade. Even though this game ended in defeat, Jones still had an amazing game that truly was one of the best of his career.
The next and final game on the list was a recent game and also one of the best team defensive performances that the Chiefs have had in the past several years.
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).