Chris Jones: Chiefs Heard and Saw Doubters Heading Into Season

Now that the KC's regular season is over, Jones reflected on the team's journey throughout it.

The Kansas City Chiefs came into Week 18 with one mission and one mission alone: find a way to win. 

With a victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, Andy Reid's squad would clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs and guarantee both a first-round bye and at least one home playoff game in a couple of weeks. At the end of Saturday's outing at Allegiant Stadium, that's exactly what they ended up getting. A rare three-phase win got Kansas City everything it wanted, and defensive tackle Chris Jones spoke after the game about how his teammates understood the assignment and worked hard to get the job done. 

"Knock on wood [that] everyone came out healthy," Jones said. "We've got a week off. We came in with intention knowing what was at stake and what we were fighting for, and we were able to win the game most importantly. Heading into the playoffs, we get a bye week and everything we wanted going into the season. We're looking forward to the playoffs."

It wasn't necessarily supposed to be this easy for the Chiefs. Following an offseason that saw the team trade star wideout Tyreek Hill and subsequently retool at the receiver position, questions arose about just how effective quarterback Patrick Mahomes would be in his fifth full season on the job. On the defensive side of the ball, general manager Brett Veach allowed cornerstone defensive backs Charvarius Ward and Tyrann Mathieu to simply walk out the door in free agency and replaced them with a combination of 2022 NFL Draft selections and somewhat unproven free agency additions. Heck, even Jones's direct running mates up front had a cloud of uncertainty cast above them.

Compared to recent years, Kansas City wasn't the overwhelmingly popular pick to win the AFC West. Some folks bought into the Los Angeles Chargers taking a leap with another year of Justin Herbert and Brandon Staley leading the way. Some thought the Raiders would either remain a playoff-level team or even improve given their coaching changes and upgrades on paper. Others put their faith in the Denver Broncos turning the ever-popular "they're just a quarterback away" mantra into an actual reality. Months later, though, it's the Chiefs that secured the division crown by multiple games and have another high-ranking playoff seed. Jones made it a point to say that everyone heard the noise. 

"Going into the year, we had a lot of criticism of, 'we might be the worst team in this division,'" Jones said. "Know [that] every player in that locker room and every coach in that locker room heard about it or had seen it on social media or ESPN. With all the transitions this division made like bringing in Chandler Jones or Russell Wilson and the Chargers adding Khalil Mack, they counted us out.

"With Coach Reid and Pat and the supporting cast, we were able to overcome every adversity, every stick and stone they were throwing our way and go undefeated in the division. I think that's tremendous — it takes a lot to do that. It's not an easy task. It takes a lot from each individual also to buy in and truly believe in that. I'm just extremely proud of these young men."

As Jones mentioned, Kansas City went 6-0 in AFC West games this season. Most of them were closely-contested battles, although many inter-division matchups are. The West may not have turned out to be the Big Bad Wolf that many predicted it would be coming into the 2022-23 campaign, and a big reason why was because the reigning champions didn't take much of a step back — if they did at all. They simply adjusted, noticed who did and didn't believe in them, went to work and are currently in a pretty good spot because of it. If that aforementioned doubt indeed served as fuel for the Chiefs, it sure helped produce a fantastic regular season. 

Read More: Four Takeaways From the Chiefs' 31-13 Win Over the Raiders