Chuck Smith is a longtime pass-rush guru to NFL stars, a retired sack seeker himself and, as of March, the Ravens’ latest outside linebackers coach. Before he went to Baltimore, he sometimes trained Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones, giving Smith rare and valuable insight into Jones’s ongoing contract saga.
Smith recalls stumbling upon a magazine cover around 2008. He cannot remember the specific issue, but it featured Albert Haynesworth, the mammoth defensive tackle who moved like much smaller men, with nimble feet and elite agility. “The Big Man: Revolution of the Defensive Tackle,” the Sports Illustrated cover headline read. For much of the previous decades, defensive tackles had primarily been utilized to stop the run and take up space. But as offenses threw more (and more efficiently), defenses were forced to counter those adaptations, meaning they needed to keep more players in coverage and create the majority of any quarterback pressure through their defensive line.
Jones announced on social media this week that he was willing to hold out until Week 8, if necessary, if he couldn’t reach an agreement with the Chiefs on a new contract. He added, “I can afford it” for good measure. Why he can do that, why he can say that, and why he is doing both speaks to what Smith saw and how Smith connected that issue to his future trainee. He came to see Jones as a player who fit within the new paradigm laid out in that magazine article.
