Chris Jones is a future Hall of Famer.
A six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro, he has 82.5 career sacks. That number is the fourth most in Kansas City Chiefs history.
But in his 10th season, the 31-year-old defensive lineman, who has been the team’s best defensive player throughout the Patrick Mahomes era, has not played up to his typically elite standards.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was asked about Jones during Monday’s press conference.
“We all need to do better,” he said. “Chris is always striving to do better every day. That’s what’s made him such a good player.”
But only in his rookie year in 2016 has Jones had so few sacks through eight games. (That year he also had two sacks but did not start until Week Seven and got his two sacks over the next four games.)
He’s had at least five sacks every other season.
It’s not just the two sacks he has this year. He has totaled just five pressures in the last three games while opposing offenses continue to focus their blocking schemes toward Jones.
“He’ll get his as we go forward,” Reid said. “He’s the guy that they’re going to focus on. And if you’re getting a double team, that’s who’s getting doubled.”
But from a financial perspective, Jones must do more than occupy blockers. He takes up three times the salary cap space as every other Chiefs defender after signing a five-year $158.75 million contract extension before the 2024 season.
The Chiefs need him to dominate.
Many presumed 2025 would be a huge year for Jones because of how the defensive leader was emotionally impacted by the 40-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX.
In the postgame locker room, his inspiring, motivational speech to the team was captured in the ESPN documentary Kingdom.
“Hey, it’s gonna hurt. It’s supposed to. It’s a lesson, but it’s also something you can build off of,” he said. “Make sure when you approach training camp, this is the best shape you’ve ever been in because you’ve got something to prove, man. It’s gonna hurt. They was the better team today, and it’s okay. You got to accept that —-. When you accept it, you work hard.”
Jones knows what it’s like to both win and lose Super Bowls. Along with Mahomes and Travis Kelce, Harrison Butker and James Winchester, Jones is one of five players to suit up in all five of the Chiefs’ recent Super Bowls, winning three.
He explained his postgame reaction to coming up just short of the historic three-peat last year.
“We all was overflowed with emotions especially after a big game like that and especially the way we lost,” Jones said. “It’s more so about how you respond. So eventually you going to get knocked down, but the response is the most important thing.”
So far Jones has not responded in the way most figured.
His struggling season — at least by the lofty bar Jones has set — was symbolized by the Jacksonville Jaguars’ last offensive play to win 31-28 on
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence fell twice but still ran in for the game-winning score, and Jones did not run to the ball.
To Jones’ credit, though, he was a stand-up person who owned up to his mistake.
“It’s a teaching point for me,” he said. “I can’t think the play is over. You know what I mean? It’s a learning lesson. I thought it was over. I thought we had him down. So I kind of stopped and was about to celebrate and then realized that he wasn’t down.”
That loss to the Jaguars was the most surprising of the season for the 5-4 Chiefs, but a clear path to their 10th straight AFC West title remains.
And with a pivotal game Sunday against the first-place Denver Broncos, the Chiefs could use a vintage performance from Jones more than ever.
The Cleveland Browns are off to a 2-7 start, and fans have called for head coach Kevin Stefanski to be fired.
However, it is unlikely that Stefanski will be fired this season. Meanwhile, Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot revealed that he is likely to return in 2026. General manager Andrew Berry is also expected back, according to Cabot.
“The truth is, we have no idea what they are actually really thinking,” Cabot said on 92.3 The Fan. “I know going into it, Jimmy Haslam has indicated, I believe at the owner’s meetings, that he wasn’t holding Kevin and Andrew’s feet to the fire because this was the year they were trying to figure out what they had in one of these rookie quarterbacks. Or, at least at that point, they knew it was going to be one rookie quarterback.
“I don’t think there was this sense of ‘win or else’ this season. It was about fact-finding and figuring out what they had and helping them inform what to do in the 2026 draft. I just don’t think this was a year where the expectations were super, crazy high. But, still, you have to see certain things from your football team. … I do think that Jimmy believes in continuity and alignment in his organization. And, he knows that this is a challenging year with all of the rookies. In a perfect world, he’s going to want to try to maintain that continuity. And, see if they can’t get this thing on the right track with a new quarterback they will probably draft in 2026.
Cabot believes Haslam still has confidence in Berry and Stefanski, and both could very well return next season with a new quarterback.
Cleveland has struggled this season as the Browns are off to a 2-7 start and coming off a disappointing 27-20 road loss to the New York Jets.
Following the loss, Stefanski made it clear that the goal and focus are on turning it around and finding ways to win.
“Obviously frustrated, disappointed on that result yesterday,” Stefanski said on Monday. “And we’re spending time right now watching it with the players and trying to learn from that. You know, hard to win on the road, and certainly hard when you do some of the things we did in that ball game. But we’re committed to this thing, and we’ll just find ways to get better in all areas and we’ll go from there. Big division game at our place this week.”
Stefanski believes the Browns have to be better in all three phases of the game. Despite that being an issue all season, he has full confidence in his group.
The Browns will host the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday in a game Cleveland is a 7.5-point underdog.
Although Stefanski hasn’t been fired, and there are no signs he will be, his name has come up for other jobs.
The New York Giants fired Brian Daboll on Monday after a loss to the Chicago Bears. Following Daboll’s firing, NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky links Stefanski to the Giants.
“The No. 1 name that I would pay attention to if I were the Giants is what happens in Cleveland with Kevin Stefanski,” Orlovsky said on Monday on NFL Live. “If I could hand-pick a guy, it would be Stefanski. He’s an outstanding coach, two-time Coach of the Year.
“I understand people in Cleveland are like, ‘This guy can’t coach’. But there’s a lot of empirical data that would say otherwise. … I would pay attention to see what’s going on in Cleveland.”
Stefanski has been the Browns’ head coach since 2020 and has led them to the playoffs twice.