Jones, Crosby Rank as Top-10 Pass Rushers
The Las Vegas Raiders knew they needed to add more upside to their defense for the 2022 season, and they went about doing just that this offseason.
Signing one of the decade's most prolific pass rushers in Chandler Jones is a move that's only made when a team is serious about contending.
His pairing with the Raiders homegrown star in defensive end Maxx Crosby could lead to career numbers for both men.
It's such that former Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion Willie McGinest, who's now an analyst for NFL.com, put both Crosby and Jones in his ranking of top-10 edge rushers for 2022.
Crosby and Jones have shared space in other lists like this, but what might surprise some fans is that McGinest has Jones ranked ahead of Crosby.
Not that McGinest doesn't have good things to say about Crosby, who comes in at #9 on the list.
He gave Crosby credit as being the driving force behind the Raiders having the highest quarterback pressure rate in the NFL last season at 33.6 percent.
Crosby himself had a league-high 112 pressures last season, but he only had eight sacks, and the Raiders as a team had just 35, which was tied for 20th in the NFL last year.
That's what bringing in Jones is supposed to change, keeping up the pressure, but with the sack totals to go along with it.
That's why Jones ranks five spots ahead of Crosby at #4 on the list, being labeled as a generational pass rusher by McGinest.
His career body of work plays a big part in that kind of label, with seven double-digit sack seasons on Jones's resume.
No player has more sacks than Jones's 107.5 over the last 10 seasons, and even as he enters his early 30's, he still has the motivation to set new benchmarks for himself.
Jones talked earlier this offseason how he added new pass rush moves to his arsenal after attending Buffalo Bills edge rusher Von Miller's Pass Rush Summit.
With the kind of numbers he's already put up, it would be very easy for Jones to rest on his laurels.
The fact he's still looking for ways to improve is the kind of thing that separates great players from good ones, and can only mean good things for the Raiders this season.
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