KC Chiefs DT Chris Jones Opens up About Pressure to Hit Contract Incentives

Jones discussed how he frees up opportunities for his teammates, as well as his stance on needing to hit his contract incentives for 2023.

The Kansas City Chiefs' defensive line is playing solid football in 2023, contributing to a Steve Spagnuolo overall defense that ranks among the five best in the NFL in various categories. All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones is a major part of that process, with the past several months bringing a ton of context to his current season.

Back in February, Jones was closing out Super Bowl LVII against the Philadelphia Eagles and seemed destined to land a long-term contract extension in the spring. That never came to fruition, though, leading to the lifelong Chief holding out. The holdout lasted throughout all of training camp and the preseason, even resulting in Jones missing Kansas City's Week 1 game against the Detroit Lions. His return started a five-game streak with a sack, a stretch that's since been snapped.

Jones has been held sackless in three consecutive games, with his play dipping a bit. In the team's most recent contest, he got flagged for a costly unnecessary roughness penalty in Germany versus the Miami Dolphins. Despite his lack of high-level individual success in the last month, Jones said on Thursday that he takes more pride in helping those around him succeed. 

"I think, as a player, it's not what you do," Jones said. "I think it's more so [about] how you make players around you better. Kobe Bryant emphasized that. For him, it was going to come but more importantly, just making guys around him better. And that's what I emphasize. Just making sure George (Karlaftis) has a career year, making sure Mike (Danna) has a career year. That gives me excitement because I feel like I contribute to that a lot. I put a lot of energy and I invest a lot in those guys so to see those guys to succeed beyond what you guys expected or what they expected brings joy to me." 

Double team rate at defensive tackle (x) by pass rush win rate at defensive tackle (y), updated chart!

Three big names at the top.

(ESPN Analytics / NFL Next Gen Stats) pic.twitter.com/x0eKrxLeNa

— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) November 10, 2023

From the above chart posted by Seth Walder, it can be concluded that Jones is drawing double teams at a high rate. In fact, his mark ranks in the top five of all defensive tackles on the list. As a result, the eighth-year man is seeing his pass rush win rate slot lower than expected. The double whammy for Jones is that a year ago, he was double-teamed a bit more often but won at a league-leading rate anyway. He was pretty easily the most productive defensive tackle in the sport.

According to Pro Football Focus, Jones ranks eighth among all 2023 interior defensive linemen with 32 pressures. That comes with him having logged 59 fewer opportunities than the next-closest player at the top, though, which is a reminder that he's coming off a bye week and also missed the aforementioned season opener. Jones is PFF's No. 7-graded interior lineman in pass rush grade. His five-and-a-half sacks this year leave him short of pacing for some important contract incentive benchmarks, but he claims he isn't worried one bit.

"Frustration only creeps in with the extracurricular after a play," Jones said. "Other than that, I don't get frustrated [with] my numbers. I'm going to hit my numbers. It never really matters about numbers. For me to worry about numbers... there are eight games left in the season. Whether I get a sack in this game or not, we've got seven more games left. If I get seven sacks in seven games, you do the math. I'm going to hit my numbers regardless, so I never really trip about numbers."

The rest of the way this season, Jones is set to hit some of his contract incentives and miss others. The bars for 35% of snaps ($1 million), 50% of snaps ($1M) and 10 sacks ($1.25M) remain squarely in his grasp. On the other hand, his marks for 15 sacks ($500,000), first-team All-Pro and Super Bowl appearance ($1M) and Defensive Player of the Year and a Super Bowl win ($2M) are far less certain. In advance of a Week 11 Super Bowl rematch, Jones cited how difficult it is to notch sacks but doubled down on not feeling a great amount of pressure to earn the things he fought for throughout the entire offseason.

"Listen, man, it's so damn hard," Jones said. "To be honest with you, it's so damn hard. With all the attention I get, it gets hard but when you've got guys around you that are succeeding, it makes it easier for you. Some games, you might get the double team the whole game and you might not have that opportunity to win. In one game, you might get a double team 50% [of the time]. So 50%, I've got a chance of beating a guy one-on-one. That's the way I look at it. Frustration can creep in when you feel like your numbers matter but for me, I don't give a damn about numbers, honestly. In my head, I feel like whatever I want is still ahead of me. There are eight games left. There's another half of a season left. In the first half of the season, I had five sacks, you know? And then I missed a game, right? So I've got eight more games to go. I'm good."

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