Just a week after earning praise from Doug Farrar and Greg Cosell as the NFL’s most disruptive pass-rusher from 3-technique, Chris Jones is earning praise as the NFL’s best interior defensive lineman.
Farrar revealed his list of the NFL’s 11 best interior defensive linemen heading into 2023. With a down year from Los Angeles Rams DT Aaron Donald in 2022, Jones was able to finally claim the top spot for his own. In doing so, he met the three criteria of displaying gap versatility, different ways to get to the ball (and quarterback), along with the ability to stop the run.
After a brief recap of Jones’ college to NFL pedigree, Farrar delved into what makes Jones the best at what he does:
Included were clips of Jones’ making Bengals’ Max Scharping look silly rushing outside of his shoulder and a speedy inside rush against Broncos’ Graham Glasgow. There is also, of course, a play where he knifed into the backfield, beating an offensive lineman to his spot and dropping Seahawks RB Kenneth Walker for a big loss. You can find that film and interior defensive linemen ranked 2 through 11 at Touchdown Wire.
Jones truly is the lynchpin of Steve Spagnuolo’s defense, which is one of the reasons we also named him as the Chiefs’ non-QB MVP. As Jones continues to rack up the offseason praise, fans will be monitoring his situation closely as talks surrounding a contract extension ramp up with training camp less than two weeks away.
