Arrowhead Pride
As the All-Pro defensive tackle turns 31, here is how Kansas City can help him.
Over the past few years, one thing I’ve given attention to is the snap percentage the Kansas City Chiefs have given All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones. Of everything Jones brings to the table, the most underrated strength he possesses is phenomenal conditioning.
When Jones entered the league, he showed flashes of the dominant player he would become, but the consistency wasn’t there. Some of this was that Jones needed more time to develop, but that conditioning also hurt his consistency.
As Jones developed into a star, his conditioning had improved, but there were still some inconsistencies in his game. Jones would take particular run plays off and not bring it every single down.
As he approached his peak seasons — from ages 27 to 29 — Jones continued to get in even better shape and refine his game. Around 2022, Jones focused on run defense, becoming a significant positive in the run game.
Jones started using his length more effectively and showed improved gap integrity and leverage against double teams. He wasn’t always caught trying to backdoor plays, and he played more in the structure of the defense. As a pass rusher, Jones was able to extend his impact over 60 minutes so that he was always felt. Since that point, Jones has been the best defensive tackle in the league and has the argument for the NFL’s best defender.
An underrated aspect of Jones' peaking is his conditioning and ability to play a high number of snaps. Over the past three seasons, Jones has played more snaps, achieving a snap percentage above 80%.
Here are Jones’s snap counts through his career:
Being able to play 80% of snaps as a defensive tackle is wild.
The physicality of playing defensive tackle is brutal. You’re constantly dealing with two offensive linemen slamming into you. Blockers can come from all different angles. You have to keep your head on a swivel to read blocking patterns.
In the run game, you have to take on two 300-pound linemen flying into you. On top of all this, Jones is the source of the Chiefs' pass rush and faces constant double teams and slides. And despite all of this, Jones has excelled.
That being said, Jones is now going into his age-31 season. We’re approaching the post-peak part of his career. That’s not a knock on Jones, but it’s an inevitability of the league. Not only will Jones experience some natural physical decline in his athleticism, but injuries will also start to become a factor. The NFL schedule is a bloodbath, and expecting Jones to continue to be the best defensive tackle in the league while playing all those snaps would be unfair.
To be clear, I’m not predicting Jones to all of a sudden fall off; I still expect Jones to be the best defensive tackle in the league this season. However, I’ve felt for several years that the...
