Entering this week, Chris Jones ranks 51st among qualifying defensive linemen with an 8.1-percent pressure rate. You needn’t look further to know it hasn’t been the best of his seasons. With a drop in production, the Chiefs‘ reliable tackle hasn’t been affecting quarterbacks just the same, and that has been a cue for criticism.

The Chiefs’ faithful have swarmed Jones on social media over his performances of late, especially after Jacksonville’s game-winning touchdown, where there seemed to have been a lapse in concentration. It’s possible that the noise pushed him away from the platforms for a while. But when he returned to Instagram last week, he came back with much positivity —both within and around him.

“You are so loved and prayed over. Thankful for you and your heart,” Tavia Hunt, wife of Chiefs’ owner Clark Hunt, commented on Jones’ most recent post.

That’s encouraging for Jones, who is having a season to forget. While the Chiefs have managed to put up the No.4 scoring defense, they rank 21st in the league with just 20 sacks. The blame was, of course, in part placed on the defensive tackle.

Over nine games, he has recorded two sacks, 13 tackles, eight quarterback hits, and five tackles for loss. Pro Football Focus even gave him an 81.4 pass-rush grade, the worst since his rookie year. What’s more, this sets the three-time All-Pro defensive tackle on pace for a career low in both tackles and sacks since his rookie year in 2016. But neither Jones nor Steve Spagnuolo is paying much heed to the criticism that might stem.

“Things that’s supposed to happen has already happened or still happening…. A bunch of people I loved now love different things. We could discuss what they like tbh they like anything,” he shared in his first grid post back on the platform.

For what it’s worth, though, ESPN’s Seth Walder took a closer look at defensive linemen with the best pass rush win rate this week. And Jones was right up there, only trailing Jeffery Simmons. Like the Chiefs’ star says, the positives aren’t given enough attention, the more you lose.

With a 5-4 season, Andy Reid‘s team finds itself in an unfamiliar situation, right on the brink of missing the playoffs. That has evidently only amplified Jones’s poorer stretcher. But he admits there’s room for improvement: “We’re kind of focused on fixing our details and what we can do or what we could have done better,” he said after the loss to the Bills.

Reid is of the same belief, demanding his defensive tackle and the rest to up their game.

Coach Andy Reid decides not to back Jones as a mounting task awaits the team

With these declining numbers and wounds of the Buffalo Bills’ loss from Week 9, Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was asked about Chris Jones and his performances in a press conference. And he did not beat around the bush.

“I think we all need to do better. I would say that. Chris (Jones) is always striving to do better every day. That’s what has made him (Chris Jones) such a good player,” Reid said. “Again, he’s the guy that they’re going to focus on, and if you’re getting a double team, that’s who’s getting doubled.

“And so, he’ll get his as we go forward. It’s just important that he stays consistent and keeps working hard.”

For the first time in seven years, the Chiefs won’t be fighting to land a home-field advantage, but rather, to clinch a playoff berth. And they will be kicking off the second half against the division leaders, the Denver Broncos. It might just define the rest of the campaign for the team.