Kansas City Chiefs' Defensive Line Lands Surprisingly Low in PFF Rankings

How can a defensive line with both Chris Jones and Frank Clark be middle-of-the-pack among NFL DLs? Pro Football Focus explains in their latest team unit rankings.

How can a defensive line with both Chris Jones and Frank Clark be middle-of-the-pack among NFL defensive fronts? Pro Football Focus explains in their latest team unit rankings.

In PFF's ranking of the NFL's best and worst defensive lines, the Kansas City Chiefs land at No. 15, just edging their way into the league's top half. Personally, I expected to see KC at least a few spots higher, even fully understanding that the line's depth is not nearly as excellent as its top two stars and that there are some other star-studded groups not much higher than the Chiefs' placement on this list.

Here's what PFF's Sam Monson had to say as the Chiefs ranked at 15:

The newly signed Chris Jones has been arguably the best interior player in the league outside of Aaron Donald over the past couple of seasons, and his 132 total pressures over the past two seasons is third among interior rushers. His pass-rush grade of 91.4 trails only Donald.
Frank Clark also got the big-money deal when the team acquired him from Seattle, but his first season was a letdown, seeing him register just 47 total pressures in the regular season before an uptick in the playoffs. His overall PFF grade for the season was just 63.0, and even those playoff performances were more flash than substance — he had five sacks across three games but did not earn a grade above 70.0 in any of them.
Outside of that duo, the situation is a little less encouraging. The team has a series of useful role players that grade solidly but nobody consistently making a difference and scaring opposing offenses. Outside of Jones, Terrell Suggs was the team’s best-graded pass-rusher up front, and his grade was just 66.9. With his departure, the team needs to find an additional source of pressure from somewhere.

Clark's injury-plagued season is fair for critiquing, but as he got healthier later in the year, it became easier to see why the Chiefs were willing to give him such a large payday last offseason. Still, Monson's critique about sacks vs. overall grade/flash vs. substance is an intriguing one.

#Chiefs DI Chris Jones has the 3rd-highest Pass Rush grade of the decade in the postseason, trailing only ED Von Miller and LB James Harrison.#ChiefsKingdom https://t.co/R8pEYQDtsA

— PFF KC Chiefs (@PFF_Chiefs) July 22, 2020

Beyond their two stars, the Chiefs do return the previously injured Alex Okafor and Breeland Speaks and are certainly at least expecting a contribution from Okafor as the likely starter opposite Clark. With the hodgepodge of Tanoh Kpassagnon, the offseason addition of Taco Charlton, and possibly Speaks rotating through the edge spots on defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's line, it certainly gets shallow quickly. In the middle, with Mike Pennel, Derrick Nnadi and Khalen Saunders working around Chris Jones, I feel fine about the interior as long as Jones is healthy.

Want to see who landed where on PFF's d-line rankings? Click here for their full story.