Chiefs DT Chris Jones can ascend franchise sack leaderboards in 2023
Kansas City Chiefs DT Chris Jones ascend the franchise sack leaderboards in a big way during the 2023 NFL season.
Keep in mind that sacks did not become an official statistic until 1982, but for our purposes, we’re including pre-1982 sacks tracked by Pro Football Reference.
Entering the 2023 NFL season, Jones ranked outside of the franchise’s top 10 leaderboards with just 49.5 career sacks. After a standout campaign that saw him tie his season-high in sacks in 2022, Jones now ranks eighth in franchise history with 65 career sacks since his rookie season in 2016. He passed standouts DE Aaron Brown and DE Mike Bell on the leaderboards in the process.
Jones’ career average during his seven seasons in the NFL is around nine sacks per season. That means with an average season in 2023, Jones would finish the year with 74 career sacks. That number would vault Jones ahead of franchise greats such as DE Jerry Mays and DT Buck Buchanan, leaving him tied with DE Art Still for the fifth-most sacks in Chiefs franchise history.
Let’s say that Jones stacks career years back-to-back and reaches 15.5 sacks again in 2023. That’d give him 80.5 career sacks, passing OLB Justin Houston to have the third-most sacks in franchise history, trailing only Neil Smith (89.5), Tamba Hali (89.5) and Derrick Thomas (126.5).
Everyone in Chiefs Kingdom is anxious to see what happens with Jones’ contract situation this offseason. Should he take the field and play in 2023, it’s possible that Jones finishes squarely among the top 5 in franchise history. It’s also probable that he has the most sacks in franchise history by an interior defensive lineman, which is an extremely impressive feat in and of its own right.
