“The Big, Fat Guy”: Awaiting Chris Jones’ Season Debut, Kansas City Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo Gets Real Ahead of the Jaguars Game

After being on holdout for an entire offseason and missing the season opener, Chris Jones is back on the team. Being in the final year of his 4-year contract that he signed in 2020, Jones believed that he deserved an extension with a raise this year. To stand by his rigid opinions, the defensive tackle adamantly opted for a holdout till he finally claimed an extension.

Chris Jones has now signed a brand new contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. His new contract is worth up to $25 million and the team now has an option to franchise tag the defensive tackle next year. With the extension of his contract, Jones will be playing against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2 of the NFL 2023 season. Interestingly, the Chiefs and their DC already have a plan for the defensive tackle.

DC Steve Spagnuolo’s plan for Chris Jones for the Sunday game

After signing his new contract with the Chiefs on Monday, September 11th, Chris Jones officially joined practice on Wednesday. Soon enough the defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said, “We’ll get through today and tomorrow and see where he is. I’ll be curious to talk to him and see how he feels [with] conditioning. That’s the biggest thing, right? It’s the conditioning. The one thing we don’t want to do, that we want to protect against as best as we can, is to not put him in a situation where we get him hurt. We certainly don’t want that”.

“And we all know, look, he hasn’t had a lot of work up until this point. We’ll get him as much as we can and then try to be smart on game day.” Spagnuolo also mentioned that the team expected their player to return in peak form so they did not have to worry. “He’s not the big, fat guy like some of the big guys that are in there and you worry about that. Listen, he’s the real deal. He’s blessed with some talent, so he looks like he’s in good shape to me.”

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Chris Jones has always been a great player like Andy Reid said. He is also one of the NFL’s greatest defensive linemen. His absence was also visibly noticeable when the Cheifs lost to the Detroit Lions in week 1. How did the team fare without him?

How did Jones’ absence affect the Chiefs’ performance?

Finishing among the Top 5 in the NFL in sacks last season, Jones has proved to be a star defensive tackle. However, instead of joining his team against the Lions, he chose to watch from a suite. Without their star defense, the Kansas City Chiefs still fared pretty well, but their defense was not good enough to tackle the Lions’ offense.

They merely managed to hold the Lions’ offense to 14 points and failed to generate the required consistent pressure on their quarterback. Not to mention, the team could only manage to get 1 sack. With Jones back on the team, everyone is looking forward to his play. His return can not only bolster the team’s pass rush and run defense but also strengthen the performances of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

Chris Jones has the chance to disrupt the Jaguars’ offense considering his potential. Therefore, his presence is absolutely necessary for the team to bounce back from their week 1 loss and attain victory over the Jaguars.

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