Chris Jones is still on the list. He’s just not where he used to be. The Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle checked in at No. 43 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026, according to the league’s official reveal posted Thursday on X by the NFL, accompanied by a Chiefs sideline clip of Jones and Travis Kelce. The post read, in part, that Jones is “No. 43 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026.”
That’s a real fall. A year ago, Jones ranked 12th overall on the same list — a countdown voted on entirely by NFL players, not by media panels or algorithms. Landing at 43 this time still puts him among the league’s better interior defensive linemen, but it’s a clear signal that his peers saw a step back in 2025.
Why the Drop
The numbers explain some of it. Jones posted 19 solo tackles, five sacks and a forced fumble last season — a quieter statistical year than the version of him that racked up 10.5 sacks and a Super Bowl ring two seasons earlier. He still made his sixth Pro Bowl and earned First-Team All-Pro recognition off that 2025 output, so this isn’t a player who fell off a cliff. It’s a player whose peers rated him as good, not great, this time around.
No. 43 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026…@Chiefs DT Chris Jones! @NFLFilms pic.twitter.com/Qn7ScXZJiC
— NFL (@NFL) July 30, 2026
Voters on the Top 100 reward what happened most recently, and sack totals move that needle more than almost anything else for a defensive tackle. Five sacks from an interior lineman who’s used to double-digit years reads as a down season, even with the tackle numbers and the hardware attached to it.
A Decade of Rankings
Jones has now made the Top 100 in nine of the last ten years, dating back to 2019. His ranking has swung wildly depending on the season that preceded it — climbing as high as No. 6 after his 2023 campaign, dipping as low as the high 30s in leaner years. No. 43 fits toward the lower end of that range, but it’s not close to his career floor.
| Year | Rank | Prior-Season Snapshot |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 39 | 27 tackles, 9 sacks |
| 2024 | 6 | 10.5 sacks, Super Bowl champion |
| 2025 | 12 | 19 solo tackles, 5 sacks, All-Pro |
| 2026 | 43 | Reflects 2025 production |
The Chiefs have had at least one player crack the Top 100 in every edition of the list for years, and Jones has been the earliest or one of the earliest Kansas City names to appear more often than not. His arrival at No. 43 keeps that streak alive, even if the number stings a little for a player who was a Top 10 lock as recently as two years ago.
What Comes Next
The Top 100 countdown is still running — the full list won’t wrap until early September, working down toward No. 1. Where the rest of the Chiefs’ roster lands, and whether Kansas City places multiple names in the Top 50, will say more about how the locker room views this team’s trajectory heading into the season than any single ranking does on its own.
