Chris Jones calls Lawrence’s lack of pursuit a ‘teaching point’

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Just days after his most embarrassing moment of the season, Chiefs passer Chris Jones explained why he didn’t give maximum effort on the Jaguars’ game-winning touchdown and said his social media accounts weren’t deactivated in an attempt to avoid criticism.

With 30 seconds left Monday and the Jaguars on the one-yard line trailing by four, quarterback Trevor Lawrence stumbled under center but managed to get back up and cross the goal line for the winning score. Jones, who led the Chiefs defensive line with 48 snaps, watched the sequence from midfield and made no significant effort to pursue and tackle Lawrence.

“It’s a teaching point for me, a little bit of adversity,” Jones said Thursday. “I can’t think the play is over. It’s a learning lesson. I thought it was over. I thought we had him down, so I kind of stopped and was about to celebrate. Then I realized he wasn’t down.”

Jones said he would do better in the future and that such an incident “wouldn’t happen again.”

He also shared that he deactivated his X and Instagram accounts before Monday’s game, contrary to what most fans thought after the loss.

“I posted a quote from Drake: ‘I’ll see you in the summer of 2026,'” Jones said. “I’ve never shied away from constructive criticism. I’ve never been that guy. In fact, I’ve always tackled it head-on. There’s a lot you can get out of criticism. It’s like fuel, like gasoline, for me personally.

“I guess people wanted to address me head-on on social media, and they (saw) it wasn’t active. They thought I deleted it for (my performance), but it was deleted a few days before.”

Next up for the Chiefs will be another primetime showdown, this time Sunday night against the Detroit Lions. Jones understands he will need an elite performance from the Chiefs defense to slow down the NFL’s highest-scoring offense led by quarterback Jared Goff and running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery.

“I’ve been focusing on the Lions since (Monday’s) game,” Jones said. “You can’t keep your head down during a game or a match. You learn from it, you take notes and you keep pushing.”