Craig Stout: Chris Jones has been lining up at DE a TON at OTAs.

[Direckshun]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Honestly, I’d rather keep him along the interior where he is elite. But Stout mentioned that the base DL is Jones and Clark on the edges with Reed and Nnadi along the interior.

That’s a big risk the team is taking, and the early returns in spot duty last year were not encouraging.

But Stout mentions that Jones has slimmed down a ton as well, clearly prepared to take a stronger role at RDE.

Maybe the most important thing to watch for our defense.

He also mentions Humphrey is your starting center.

[smithandrew051]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

staylor already responded, but I'm going to double down on him.

There is a LARGE, LARGE, LARGE difference between sticking a guy at DE for one game in the middle of the season, when your DE group has been decimated by injury - they were missing Okafor, that's the game where Ogbah got hurt (IIRC), and Frank Clark was dinged up. It was before they signed Suggs. Some might even say that's an ENORMOUS difference from:

• Planning for him to play outside from the beginning of the season
• Having him adjust his body and conditioning to play snaps on the outside
• Adjusting the scheme (again, it's flat-out dumb to think they're going to run the same stuff they've been running, exactly as they've been running it, with a leaner Jones instead of Kpassagnon or Danna). They're going to make some schematic changes to take advantage of what Jones does/can do. If they come out and try to line up Jones at 6+ gap and it doesn't work, I'll criticize the approach right alongside you. But WHY would they run it that way? No reason to think they would.

I know you like to have things to freak out about and question the team about, but YOU'RE the one who needs to pump the breaks on worrying about this until we see it in a game (rather than telling all the rest of us we know how it's going to go, and we should stop defending until we see it in a game).

It was an honor to be the gold thumbs up on this one

[JakeF]

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

Jones is the best pass rusher on this team.

They're going to line him up everywhere on the DL. Teams will have to try and plan for that. Good luck.

Yea, if Jones proves that he dominate OTs like does guards. If Jones doesn't then teams will be happy that we moved him and reduced the threat Jones brings. Jones also has to prove he can handle sweeps and draws that run around/under the DE. Jones struggled with jumping under quickly enough on run plays.

I'm not saying that Jones can't, just that must prove it to offenses before they respect him at DE.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by JakeF

Yea, if Jones proves that he dominate OTs like does guards. If Jones doesn't then teams will be happy that we moved him and reduced the threat Jones brings. Jones also has to prove he can handle sweeps and draws that run around/under the DE. Jones struggled with jumping under quickly enough on run plays.

I'm not saying that Jones can't, just that must prove it to offenses before they respect him at DE.

And if he doesn't, then they'll move him back inside.

Some people here are acting like once we've put him outside they can't change it. Hell, they're going to change it from snap to snap and game to game.

Wringing your hands over this is ridiculous.

[JakeF]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

And if he doesn't, then they'll move him back inside.

Some people here are acting like once we've put him outside they can't change it. Hell, they're going to change it from snap to snap and game to game.

Wringing your hands over this is ridiculous.

I was never wringing my hands, I was just discussing the thread topic.

Drink a gallon of antifreeze, light yourself on fire, **** off and die.

[O.city]

Reading Nate Taylor and Verderame this am, seems like JOnes may play more DE than we were thinking.

[CasselGotPeedOn]

He might have to considering we have exactly jack and shit opposite of Clark.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by O.city

Reading Nate Taylor and Verderame this am, seems like JOnes may play more DE than we were thinking.

Doubt it.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by O.city

Reading Nate Taylor and Verderame this am, seems like JOnes may play more DE than we were thinking.

Listening to Taylor on Times Ours and he’s been lining up there a lot in mini camp. And looking good doing it.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by O.city

Reading Nate Taylor and Verderame this am, seems like JOnes may play more DE than we were thinking.

That is my impression as well.

I do think there's a division of opinion in this thread:

Side A (staylor, Meck, SNR, duncan, etc) is saying "this is an experiment, Jones is only going to be rotational, it's going to be matchup specific, etc" and the general belief there is that this is either going to be functional or it's going to be a short-lived experiment with no downside

Side B (myself, perhaps others) is saying "there's some cause for concern here, 'DE Jones' is robbing 'DT Jones' of snaps, Jones' skillset doesn't seem effective on the edge, etc" and the general belief here is that this is going to waste of some Jones' talent and the team doesn't have much fallback if this doesn't work out

Regardless the opinion of some "A" folks, I think those are two fair points of view.

But something I've noticed is that the "A" folks simply don't think Jones is going to be at DE very much. "B" folks, or at least myself, genuinely do think he's going to spend a fair amount of time there.

Obviously we're all reading tea leaves at this point but I think that may be one of the sneaky dividing lines on the issue.

Let me ask this to the "A" folks in this thread:

Do any of you believe that Jones is going to spend "significant" time at DE? ("Significant time" = 35-45% of Jones' snaps.)

[RunKC]

I believe that it will greatly depend on how he does starting off. But I think you’ll see him more at DE on obvious pass downs bc of 2 things:

1. Jarran Reed and Tershawn Wharton are good interior rushers
2. We don’t have much of an option for a consistent pass rush at DE opposite of Clark

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I believe that it will greatly depend on how he does starting off. But I think you’ll see him more at DE on obvious pass downs bc of 2 things:

1. Jarran Reed and Tershawn Wharton are good interior rushers
2. We don’t have much of an option for a consistent pass rush at DE opposite of Clark

Oddly enough, that's been counter to the argument most "A" folks in this thread have made, and I think I'm inclined to agree with the "A" folks on this one.

If you're putting Jones in at DE, it should be on early downs, and you slide him back in on obvious passing downs.

But I actually did hear Nick Jacobs on 4th & 1 podcast today suggest exactly what you said: putting Jones at DE primarily on passing downs so you can have all three DTs and Clark rushing.

I just don't like that arrangement as much as I do Taco/Jones/Reed/Clark

[O.city]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Doubt it.

Did you read Taylors article?

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Oddly enough, that's been counter to the argument most "A" folks in this thread have made, and I think I'm inclined to agree with the "A" folks on this one.

If you're putting Jones in at DE, it should be on early downs, and you slide him back in on obvious passing downs.

But I actually did hear Nick Jacobs on 4th & 1 podcast today suggest exactly what you said: putting Jones at DE primarily on passing downs so you can have all three DTs and Clark rushing.

I just don't like that arrangement as much as I do Taco/Jones/Reed/Clark

It gets your best pass rushers on the field together. I'd be ok with that.

[duncan_idaho]

I don’t think I’ve been pushing the narrative that this is short-term or that it’s an experiment or that it won’t happen much.

It’s more that they seem unlikely to ME to just play Jones as a 6+ tech. That the Chiefs will adjust what the LE is asked to do and use him in more of a 43 under alignment, where he’s a 4 or 5 tech

They’re going to go with the alignment that puts their best pass rush. If that means playing Wharton instead of Charlton, I can believe and buy that. It’s a bit of a surprise, but I’m not seeing these guys every day.

But yeah, I think Jones will get significant snaps at DE.

[htismaqe]

There's zero reason to have Taco Charlton on the field. Broke. Dick.