Chris Jones is having his best season ever for KC Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs came into this season needing a big year from Chris Jones after the pass rush hadn’t been where it needed to be over the past few seasons. The pressure has been on Jones to carry the pass rush since 2018, when the Chiefs cut ties with Justin Houston and traded Dee Ford (and after Frank Clark failed to ultimately live up to his once-mammoth contract). A revolving door of defensive ends on the other side of the line created a situation where if Jones isn’t getting it done, then the pass rush was essentially non-existent.

That said, Jones has gotten a lot of unfair criticism for the pass rush going silent for long stretches, when in reality, he’s been the only consistent threat.

This isn’t to say Jones isn’t capable of leading a good pass rush, but he also can’t be the only one and in 2020 and 2021, after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, the Chiefs’ pressure rate from the edge position decreased substantially as did Jones’. When offenses trust their tackles to handle the edge rush one on one, teams can double-team Jones as much as they want, and Jones was among one of the most double-teamed defensive linemen over the last few years.

Chris Jones has taken his game to another level this year and deserves to be in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year.

Regardless, Jones has still been a force to be reckoned with since entering the league and even if he isn’t affecting the game with sacks, he is influencing the play or opening things up for his teammates.

As the Chiefs brought in Carlos Dunlap and George Karlaftis this offseason to bolster their edge rush, the Chiefs were looking for a big year from Jones. In the past, all he needed was a little bit of help like in 2018 when he put up a career-high 15.5 sacks. Now, Chris Jones is on pace for his best season ever.

At this point in the season, Jones has already accumulated 9 sacks, 22 combined tackles, 10 TFL, and 2 forced fumbles. Jones is putting up Defensive Player of the Year numbers so far and is on pace to finish with nearly 20 sacks.

Jones is not just putting up numbers, though. He’s taking over in clutch situations, with the most recent example being a critical sack on Justin Herbert in the fourth quarter of last Sunday’s game after the Chiefs took the lead. Jones has been great in late-game situations this year and he is leading the way for others like Khalen Saunders, who is having a breakout year playing alongside Jones as well.

Jones also leads the league in pass-rush win rate among all defensive tackles, a list that includes Aaron Donald, and is still among the most double-teamed. It just hasn’t mattered. Jones and Donald are simply in their own tier.

Jones hasn’t been alone in putting together his career-best season so far, though. Carlos Dunlap has been a key piece along with flashes from George Karlaftis, and Frank Clark has elevated his play relative to what he looked like seasons prior. Even though the Chiefs blitz a lot and the pass rush is still coming together as a whole and trying to generate sacks organically, Jones is destroying the opposition in a way we haven’t seen before.

An area in which Jones’ game has improved as well is his run defense. Jones was very raw defending the run early in his career but his ability to blow his opponent off the ball has resulted in more plays being made in the backfield.

Jones is currently at +2750 odds to win DPOTY which seems rather low especially given what he’s doing is from the defensive tackle position, a place where it’s harder to generate pressure from. However, Jones is one of the best in the league at getting to the quarterback regardless. Either way, Chiefs fans should enjoy what they’re seeing from Jones because he is having one of the best seasons for a defender in Chiefs history and is well on his way to earning another extension in the offseason.