Chris Jones On A Prove It Deal Is Scary Sight For The NFL
Chris Jones returned to the field Sunday from his extended holdout and did not miss a beat, see why that should terrify every offense in the league...
One of the biggest stories of the NFL offseason was the holdouts of star players on both sides of the ball. The holdout that lasted the longest and had possibly the messiest resolution was Chris Jones and the Chiefs. After a hold out that lasted month due to the rumors that Jones wanting to exceed Aaron Donald’s record breaking contract with the Rams, a hold out that caused him to miss the season opener versus the Lions, Jones ended up signing a reworked 1 year deal with a base salary of $19.5 million worth up to $25 million in incentives. That is a far cry from Aaron Donald’s 3 years for $95 million deal, essentially putting Jones on a prove it deal heading into 2024 Free Agency. And as the Jaguars found out on Sunday a pissed off Chris Jones is a scary sight, somehow even scarier than the 2022 version that saw him finish 3rd in Defensive Player of the Year voting after racking up 97 Pressures and 17 Sacks.
In Jones first action of the year on Sunday he only played 33 total snaps, he average 54 snaps per game in ‘22, but had 6 Pressures, 2 Sacks, 1 Batted Ball and 2 Run Stops all on a ludicrous Pass Rush Win Rate of 40.7%, a number that jumped to an even crazier 72.7% in True Pass Sets. To put that in perspective in 2022, Bryce Huff, a rotational EDGE for the Jets, led the league in among qualified defenders with a Win Rate of 25.6% and the DPOY Nick Bosa had a season long rate of 19.9%. Jones did his damage from all over the field on Sunday, per PFF he had 5 snaps lining up at DT and 28 at EDGE, 16 over an OT and 12 more outside an OT. In the clips of his pressures below you can see him doing damage versus virtually every offensive lineman the Jaguars could send at him. Jones was simply unblockable on Sunday.
Now everyone knows Chris Jones is a star, he has been for years, so why is what we saw Sunday so scary? Well it’s because through 2 games the Chiefs defense has relatively shut down two pretty good offensive teams with their star player only playing 33 total snaps. After two weeks of games vs the Lions and Jaguars the Chiefs defense is 4th in PPG (15.0), 8th in EPA/P (-0.115), and 8th in Success Rate (39.8%). Chris Jones was already one of the premier defensive lineman in the NFL prior to this year, if he can continue just 75-80% of his Week 2 production over the course of a full season with the improvements the rest of this Chiefs defense has made it has a legit shot to finish as a Top 10 unit. If Kansas City can have that added to their HOF HC and QB to go with an offense that will likely not remain as sluggish as it has been to start the year, it’s going to be hard for any team to take the Lombardi away from the St. Louis-Kansas border this year.