With the first round of the NFL Draft officially in the books, there is one Kansas City Chiefs player who has to be feeling pretty good about what his team has done to help him this offseason – Chris Jones.
The Chiefs have clearly prioritized reinforcing the interior defensive line this offseason. They drafted Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods with the 29th overall pick last night, and they signed free agent Khyiris Tonga to a three-year, $21 million contract ($14 million guaranteed).
It’s a clear shift in mindset. After years of turning to the same recycled players and handing out veteran-minimum deals, the Chiefs have now spent premium resources at DT in a first-round draft pick and a $21 million contract that they handed out on the opening day of the legal tampering period.
Woods is the first defensive tackle the Chiefs have drafted in the first round since they took Dontari Poe 11th overall in 2012, and he is a higher draft pick than KC used to select Jones himself (37th overall).
The investment makes total sense, both in terms of increased depth and the hope for improved production.
Between free agency and the draft's first round, Chris Jones has to be a very happy man.
Woods will hopefully bring some pass rush juice to a defensive line, and an interior especially, that struggled to get to the quarterback last year. The Chiefs ranked 25th in the league in sacks last year (35 sacks) and last in sack yards lost (159 yards).
The Chiefs got practically no help from the interior. Kansas City's defensive tackles combined for eight sacks last year—and Jones had seven of them, while Norman-Lott had one. Pickens, Derrick Nnadi, and Marlon Tuipulotu had zero sacks, zero tackles for loss, and one quarterback hit between them.
While Woods and Tonga aren’t known for huge sack numbers—Woods had five sacks and 14.5 TFL in his college career, and Tonga has just one-half sack across five NFL seasons—they can hopefully help boost the interior as a unit.
They will likely have more sack opportunities playing alongside a beast in Jones, who almost always gets double-teamed, but hopefully they can help relieve some of the workload and reliance on Jones as well.
Tonga is regarded as being great at crushing the pocket, and Woods ranked second among all 2026 college defensive tackles in both run stop rate and pass rush win rate. Even if they aren’t the ones getting to the QB, they could create extra opportunities for Jones or an edge to get home.
Career run stop and pass rush percentiles among the 2026 defensive tackles pic.twitter.com/zpLcYrZ4R7
— Football Insights 📊 (@fball_insights) February 20, 2026
Plus, having two reliable defensive tackles in Woods, Tonga, and a healthy Norman-Lott could allow Jones to kick out to edge more often, something Jones and the Chiefs have been keen to do, without leaving a massive hole in the middle.
Last year, it felt like Jones had to be on the field for Kansas City to have any chance of getting a sack, by either a DT or an edge rusher. This season, hopefully, things will be different.
The Chiefs are done shopping at the thrift store for defensive tackle help. They’ve invested big resources in the position, and Jones has to be happy with that.