Is the Chiefs' Pass Rush Fixed After Five-Sack Performance vs. Jets?

The Kansas City Chiefs' pass rush has been a significant topic throughout the 2026 season, often due to disappointing zero-sack games littered throughout the first half of the year. On Sunday against the New York Jets, the defensive line came alive, sacking Geno Smith five times in a blowout victory. So, is the Chiefs' pass rush fully fixed? It's not quite that simple.

First and foremost, it was a great day at the office for Kansas City's pass rushers, particularly Chris Jones and George Karlaftis, who each recorded two sacks. That doubled Karlaftis' season total after entering the game with two sacks on the year, and Jones recorded his first full sacks of the season, bringing him to 2.5 in 2026. Add in one sack from Ashton Gillotte, and you've got the Chiefs' most productive day of quarterback-wrangling in quite some time.

The pressure also wasn't fluky or due to particularly horrendous quarterback play. According to TruMedia, Jones and Karlaftis each had six pressures, while Gillotte had five. Jones was the highest-graded Chief on either side of the ball by Pro Football Focus, and rookie second-round pick R Mason Thomas got 28 snaps (44%), a small uptick from his lower-usage dips in Seattle and Denver (29% and 27%, respectively).

It's also worth noting that the Chiefs were without both of their first-round rookies, defensive tackle Peter Woods and cornerback Mansoor Delane. Woods could have helped add more pressure on Smith, while Delane's performance in the secondary theoretically would've bought the D-line even more time to get after the quarterback. I'm not going to adjust for hypothetical sacks, but it's nice to see that performance come at less than full-strength.

That's a lot of positive takeaways. Great day of work for the KC D-line. No notes on this performance. All good things. ...So, are we ready for the other side of the coin?

#Chiefs sacks by week this season 📊

Week 1 — 4
Week 2 — 0
Week 3 — 0
Week 4 — 0
Week 5 — BYE
Week 6 — 4
Week 7 — 0
Week 8 — 1
Week 9 — 5 pic.twitter.com/cyYKuTpWYQ
— KC Sports Network (@KCSportsNetwork) November 8, 2026

The Chiefs now have 14 sacks in 2026, still the fourth-fewest in the league. Incredibly, 13 of those sacks have come in three games: Week 1 against the Denver Broncos (four), Week 6 against the Los Angeles Chargers (four), and Sunday against the Jets (five).

In the season-opener, Bo Nix was flummoxed. Against LA, Justin Herbert was playing behind a battered O-line and in an impossibly toothless offense. Against New York, Smith entered the game tied for the second-most sacks taken by any quarterback this season. I wrote about this exact possibility on Saturday.

"It would be a good sign to see them bring Smith down early and often on Sunday, but that's a matchup where the Chiefs should be able to pad their stats," I wrote. "Even if they do find their footing against Smith, they'll have to do it again against better offenses down the stretch."

As impressive as Sunday's performance was, I can't strike any of those comments from the record. That's all still true. Another zero-sack performance would have been disastrous. A mere one-or-two-sack day would have been uninspiring. Five is a stupendous effort, but it's also the second five-sack game the Jets have surrendered this year.

Where does that leave the Chiefs' pass rush? In a much better place than it was before this game, but not all the way to a place of non-concern. I'm hugely encouraged by Jones' performance, seemingly proving that there's still a game-wrecking version of Jones to be found in his age-32 season, and I'm continually impressed by Karalftis' growth as a well-rounded defensive end who is under contract with the Chiefs with a series of reasonable cap hits through the 2030 season.

Led by the stars of the defensive line, the Chiefs did everything you could want from a pressure perspective on Sunday against the Jets. Now, they just have to continue to find multi-sack performances against better lines, better quarterbacks, and better teams.

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