The Kansas City Chiefs’ 31–28 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on “Monday Night Football” left the Chiefs searching for answers as they dropped down to 2-3 on the NFL season.
Trevor Lawrence’s improbable 1‑yard touchdown with 23 seconds remaining, a scramble that saw him trip and fall, rise and run untouched into the end zone while All‑Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones appeared nearby but not engaged, became the defining image of the defeat and the spark for a firestorm online.
Within hours, multiple outlets, including The Associated Press, noted Jones had deactivated his social accounts and social feeds filled with criticism aimed directly at the veteran interior force.
The six-time Pro Bowler answered some of those criticisms on Thursday, telling Charles Goldman of A to Z Sports that he periodically goes through “social media breaks” and actually deleted them a couple of days before the game.
“They figured that I deleted it for that, but it was deleted a couple of days before,” Jones said. “I take social media breaks… I go through periods where I don’t need any social media. It’s not beneficial for me when I don’t have any brand deals…”
Coach Andy Reid’s message after the game was blunt, telling reporters, “You can’t think that the guy is down. You can’t think that. You have to play the play. He (Jones) knows. He’s been around this a long time. That’s really what it came down to.”
Jones also acknowledged postgame that the defense didn’t complete its job. “I thought multiple times we had him,” Jones said. “We’ve just got to finish. We’ve got to finish. We had multiple guys there that we’ve just got to finish that play. It was a fluke play for him to be able to break that many tackles. Yeah, I put it on us as a defense. We’ve got to finish.”
The optics were damaging because Jones is one of the game’s premier interior pass rushers, yet his reduced impact this season has been visible in the numbers.
Through five games, he has tallied just seven tackles and one sack, meaning he is on pace for roughly 24 tackles and three to four sacks on the year, both of which would be career lows.
The Chiefs now head into Week 6 hosting the Detroit Lions on “Sunday Night Football,” a primetime test with the team’s standing and public patience already strained.
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