One of the most glaring issues for the Kansas City Chiefs this season has been their lack of a pass rush. There's more context to it than that, but either way, Sunday's 35-12 throttling of the New York Jets provided a return to normalcy in many regards.

Leading the charge was star defensive tackle Chris Jones, who tallied a pair of sacks on the afternoon after producing just a half-sack in the seven games prior. It served as an in-season renaissance for someone who's long been regarded as a premier interior lineman, even if he hasn't played like it in 2026.

Jones' Week 9 performance meant more than that, though. His sacks were enough to surpass Tamba Hali, a longtime defensive stopper in KC and a career Chief, for the second most in franchise history.

The monumental achievement is just another example of Jones' greatness, but he isn't necessarily viewing it that way. Speaking to the media following Sunday's win, the seven-time Pro Bowler expressed gratitude to everyone who's supported him over the years.

"It's a testament to all my teammates," Jones said. "One person gets the credit, but it takes a village. It takes a lot of unselfish teammates for me to be successful. Especially to get 90 sacks, it's not an easy task, but it takes a lot of unselfish individuals. Super grateful for the teammates on this journey, 11-year journey that I've had, in order for me to even get close to that."

That includes Hali and other Chiefs of the 2010s who were still around when Jones entered the NFL as a second-round pick back in 2016.

"When I came here, I had Tamba, Justin (Houston), a lot of guys who had a lot of success on this team before me," Jones said. "I was able to sit on the bench and watch these guys. Watch how they prepare, watch what they eat, how they prepare throughout the week. I was able to learn a lot from those guys. I actually still talk to Tamba. My son plays on his seven-on-seven team. We're still very close, so to pass him with all the work and sacrifice he made for this organization, it means a lot."

It's been a slow-burning season in the sack department for Kansas City; Steve Spagnuolo's defense entered Sunday's play tied for the fewest in the league with nine. That's despite the club now sitting 10th in pressure rate, per TruMedia, and also batting down seemingly countless passes in recent weeks. The duality has also reflected in Jones' season production to this point.

According to NFL Pro, Jones' pressure total before Week 9 was just 14, accompanied by a 6.7% quarterback pressure clip and a career-worst 3.15-second average time to pressure. Versus New York, he managed to come away with six pressures on 29 attempts, as well as three "quick" pressures of fewer than 2.5 seconds. His average get-off was 0.85 seconds, 0.08 seconds quicker than his threshold in Weeks 1-8.

It isn't just outlet variance coming to Jones' aid, either. Pro Football Focus, for example, gave Jones five pressures and three hurries in its preliminary grading for Sunday's outings.

Following another quiet showing against the Denver Broncos in Week 8, Jones said "the sack part is kind of overrated" and urged folks to not get "too involved in the back-and-forth with the sacks and stats." It's a valid line of thinking, but coming close to finishing the job and still falling short gets old after a while. He, Spagnuolo and the rest of the defensive line know that.

Now that he's back in the sack column twice over and has climbed up the historical Chiefs ranks in the process, Jones is taking a different approach with a victory in the books.

"Listen, I know last week, I was like, 'Sacks don't matter,'" Jones said. "I lied. Sacks are everything."