Kansas City’s star defensive tackle works with some elite company in this year’s final DPOY field.
The Kansas City Chiefs have three world-class talents, one of whom has a strong 2022-23 regular season Started to get the recognition it deserved. Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones, who is having arguably the best season of his career, was named a finalist for the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year award, it was announced Wednesday morning.
The annual AP NFL Awards formally recognize some of the top players in the NFL, and a panel of 50 members of the media vote on their nominees each year. However, voters will now rank the top five selections for the MVP for the first time, followed by the top three selections for all other awards. For this season’s DPOY award, Jones was awarded along with San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Nick Bosa and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons.
Playing in all 17 games for the Chiefs this season, Jones tied some of his career highs with 15.5 sacks and 29 quarterback hits. Additionally, he had a career-high number of tackles (44) while also completing four passes and two fumbles. Combined with the best run defense of his career under defensive line coach Joe Cullen, it was enough to earn Jones a first-team All-NBA award for the first time in his career (another AP award ). Most importantly, Jones is a Pro Bowler for the fourth straight season.
Jones faces some tough competition, Bosa leads the league with 18.5 sacks this season, Parsons has 13.5 and is also one of the NFL’s best swiss army knives, making up Addresses some deficiencies in other areas of the Cowboys’ defense. Still, even if he doesn’t end up winning, just finishing in the final three is a huge achievement for Jones. Whoever wins the award this year will be the first in their respective careers. Three past winners have been TJ Watt, Aaron Donald and Stephon Gilmore.
Jones isn’t the only Kansas City player to be a finalist for the AP Annual Awards, though. In addition to being the NFL MVP frontrunner and named a finalist on Wednesday, quarterback Patrick Mahomes is officially one of four finalists for AP Offensive Player of the Year. He joins a trio of Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts for eligibility.
Winners will be announced at the NFL Honors Awards on February 9.
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