Getting into Chris Jones’ Sacks
Alright, so I spent some time digging into Chris Jones and his sacks recently. It wasn’t like some big project, more like I was watching a Chiefs game, you know? And he just popped off the screen on a couple plays. Made me think, “Okay, what’s this guy really doing out there?” It’s easy to just see the sack on the highlight reel, but I wanted to get a better feel for it myself.
So, the first thing I did was just pull up some game footage. Not highlights, but actual game plays. I went searching online, found some coach’s film type stuff where you can see the whole line play out. Took a bit of clicking around, skipping through possessions, but I found a few games from last season.
I basically just sat there with a notepad, old school style. My goal wasn’t complicated: just watch him. Every snap he was on the field on a passing down. I wasn’t trying to be some expert analyst, just observing, like watching birds or something.
Here’s kinda what I did:
- I focused on his get-off. Like, how quick is he moving when the ball is snapped? Sometimes it looked instant, other times it seemed more measured.
- Then I watched his hands. Man, his hands are always busy. Punching, swiping, grabbing cloth. It looked exhausting, frankly.
- I tried to see what moves he was using. Didn’t know the fancy names for everything, but you see him kinda push guys back sometimes, other times he’d try to slip around them.
- I paid attention to where he lined up. Inside, outside, over the center, over the guard. Seemed like they moved him around a fair bit.
- I rewound plays. A lot. Especially the sacks. Trying to see that exact moment he beat his man. What did the offensive lineman do wrong? What did Jones do right?
It was pretty interesting, actually. You see things differently when you just focus on one player for a while. I noticed he uses his power a lot, just straight bull rush sometimes. But he’s got some quickness too, that little sidestep he does.
Found myself just jotting down simple notes like “quick hands here” or “pushed guard back easy” or “lined up wide”. Nothing fancy. I wasn’t trying to write a scouting report, just satisfy my own curiosity from watching that game.
After a couple of hours doing this over a few days, I felt like I had a much better appreciation for how he gets those sacks. It’s not just being big and strong, though that helps obviously. There’s technique there, timing, knowing where to be. It’s work. Made watching the games a bit more fun too, now I find myself watching the line play more often, not just the quarterback or the ball.
So yeah, that was my little dive into Chris Jones sacks. Just watching, rewinding, and taking some basic notes. Simple process, but kinda cool to do.