Chiefs star gets disrespected by his peers
The Kansas City Chiefs have one of the more dominant players on the defensive side of the ball in Chris Jones. In my humble opinion, he is the second-best defensive lineman after Aaron Donald. However, he was recently disrespected in a ranking by his peers. The NFL.com Top 100 list is a ranking of the […]
The Kansas City Chiefs have one of the more dominant players on the defensive side of the ball in Chris Jones. In my humble opinion, he is the second-best defensive lineman after Aaron Donald.
However, he was recently disrespected in a ranking by his peers.
The NFL.com Top 100 list is a ranking of the top-100 players in the league, according to the players in the NFL. Jones came in at No. 39, after being ranked No. 34 last season.
"He is one of the most talented big men I have ever been around," former teammate Tyrann Mathieu said in his Top 100 interview. "I think Aaron Donald is in a world of his own, but I think Chris Jones is a close second."
If anyone knows, the Honey Badger does, since they won a Super Bowl together.
"When he's inside at a three-technique, he's about as good as you're gonna see," Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce said. "It's just an overwhelming amount of power that you have to respect at all times."
Kelce watches Jones a lot, I would guess, anyways. He watches his brother, Travis Kelce, play for the Chiefs. Not to mention he played Kansas City last season and was tasked with having to stop Jones. Fortunately for the Chiefs, Jones had a quarterback hit against the Eagles in Week 4.
"He's got a weird ability to where he's standing straight up but he's still tossing people to the side and making plays… he will just throw people around effortlessly," Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby said.
While all of the praise is nice, Jones needs to be higher.
Jones did not have a bad year in 2021, but a lot of people look at his stats and think he did. But here's the thing, Chris Jones is doubled-teamed a lot. He is also game planned against every week. So, you have to look at his numbers differently.
Let's take a look at a few of the players ranked higher than Jones.
Joe Mixon is at 38, DeAndre Hopkins at 37, Lamar Jackson at 36, Keenan Allen at 35, and Kevin Byard at 34.
For Mixon, he was great last year, but he isn't better than Jones, and that's just the truth. DeAndre Hopkins missed seven games last year and will miss six games this year. Lamar Jackson did not have a good year last season, at all.
Keenan Allen and Kevin Byard are the only two that I think you could make an argument for out of this group.
The disrespect has to stop, even from his peers. Jones is one of the best defenders in the league, and he needs more positive recognition. At least more recognition than the 39th best player in the league.
Featured Image via Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
