Chris Jones named AFC’s defensive player of the week for Week 11

The NFL has named Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones as its AFC defensive player of the week for Week 11 of the 2021 NFL season.

Jones totaled five tackles, 3.5 sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a pass defensed in the Chiefs’ 19-9 victory over the Cowboys (3.5 sacks are the second-most in a single game by an AFC player this season). Jones now has 6.5 sacks on the season, one sack shy of his 2020 total.

After joking that he should have officially had 4.0 sacks in the game, Jones credited his 2021 break-out game to his teammates in the secondary and fellow linemen.

“Give it to the backend and the guys around me,” said the defensive lineman in a post-game press conference. “Frank Clark started it off with a sack. So they started sliding to Frank Clark and giving me one-on-ones. If you watch the backend and how tight they were playing in coverage, they took his first option away. That forces him to hold the ball a second or two longer. I was able to make some plays.”

The award marks the second weekly award for Jones — but his first in four seasons (Week 2, 2017). Jones joins Neil Smith (Week 16, 1994 and Week 5, 1993) and Art Still (Weeks 3 and 14, 1986) as the only Chiefs defensive linemen to earn the honor multiple times.

The Chiefs, as a club, have now taken home three weekly awards in a row, with punter Tommy Townsend winning the AFC special teams player of the week award for Week 9 and quarterback Patrick Mahomes winning the AFC offensive player of the week award for Week 10.