For Jones, this game marked another important stop on what’s been a long road for him. The star interior lineman didn’t participate in the Chiefs’ offseason program and dragged his holdout all the way through the preseason and Week 1 of the regular season due to a lack of traction on a long-term contract. While that multi-year security still isn’t secured, Jones did get an opportunity via a new one-year deal to earn a potential raise and recoup what he’s forfeited in fines and his first missed game check. Returning to practice earlier in the week, Kansas City made it apparent that the 29-year-old would be able to play on Sunday.
With that said, the Chiefs were not clear on how much they’d be playing Jones. When asked about a specific snap count this week, head coach Andy Reid and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo both shuffled around the idea a bit. After Kansas City’s 17-9 win, Reid admitted that he thought Jones could fulfill somewhere around 50% of available defensive snaps. Praising his star defender, Reid implied that Jones managed to outperform even his own head coach’s expectations.
“I figured he’d be able to play about half a game,” Reid said. “We shuttled him in and out, he did a great job. I’ve mentioned this before: Over the years here, he’s learned to keep himself in shape. When I saw him out at practice, he was moving around pretty good and his endurance seemed good so I felt comfortable that he’d go in and be able to do his thing. Maybe not to that level but that was a heck of a job, though, by him.”
In addition to getting pressure on Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence multiple times throughout the game, Jones recorded 1.5 sacks on the afternoon. One of them was a critical stop to force a turnover on downs. On top of that, Jones also had a batted pass. He lined up both on the interior and as a pseudo-defensive end against Jacksonville, another testament to his skill set as a player. For him to do that without a proper offseason, preseason or even a long ramp-up period is impressive. According to quarterback Patrick Mahomes, it’s even more than that.
