{"id":184931,"date":"2025-07-06T03:28:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T03:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/184931\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T03:28:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T03:28:18","slug":"chiefs-up-and-coming-defender-named-promising-building-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/184931\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs’ Up-And-Coming Defender Named ‘Promising Building Block’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chiefs’ Up-And-Coming Defender Named ‘Promising Building Block’<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When most people think of the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>‘ defense, Chris Jones immediately comes to mind, and rightly so.<\/p>\n

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However, another young pass rusher is quickly making a name for himself and, over the past three seasons, has developed into quite the weapon for Steve Spagnuolo.<\/p>\n

And that is pass rusher George Karlaftis.<\/p>\n

Totaling 24.5 sacks in 44 games, along with a career-high 28 quarterback hits last season, George is quickly rising up the ranks, but it is his playoff numbers that show his value.<\/p>\n

A total of 8.0 sacks in nine games, eight tackles for loss, and 16 quarterback hits show he’s a big-game player.<\/p>\n

And because of that, Bleacher Report has named Karlaftis as a promising building block for the Chiefs moving forward.<\/p>\n

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“When the Kansas City Chiefs defense takes the field, three-time All-Pro Chris Jones garners most of the attention at the line of scrimmage,” Bleacher Report’s Moe Moton writes<\/a>. “However, George Karlaftis has earned respect with 93 pressures and 24.5 sacks in three seasons.<\/p>\n

“Karlaftis isn’t generating the same amount of buzz as fellow 2022 first-rounders Travon Walker and Aidan Hutchinson in terms of extension talks. That said, he’s taken some attention away from Jones as an effective three-down defender who can get to the quarterback and stop runs behind the line of scrimmage.”<\/p>\n

\"Kansas<\/p>\n

Kansas City Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis sacks Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud.Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

With his fifth-year option coming at the end of 2025, the Chiefs will have a decision to make, and if the defensive end continues producing as he has done, a sizable contract will be coming his way.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Spotrac.com already has his value at $22.2 million APY<\/a> with an expected contract of three years at $66 million, so that will only go up if his numbers continue to climb.<\/p>\n

Jones won’t be around forever, and at just 23 years old, maybe it is Karlaftis who takes the torch and becomes the leader of that defensive line.<\/p>\n

And in doing so, will be a good “building block” for the franchise moving forward.<\/p>\n

Related: Chiefs Critics Foolishly Wonder If Patrick Mahomes Has ‘Peaked’<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Chiefs\u2019 Rashee Rice Court Date Announced After Six-Car Crash<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jul 5, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chiefs’ Up-And-Coming Defender Named ‘Promising Building Block’ originally appeared on Athlon Sports. When most people think of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[1817,8226,346,2025,7,303,118,110,2438,2437,6,2890,1827],"class_list":{"0":"post-184931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-aidan-hutchinson","9":"tag-bleacher-report","10":"tag-chiefs","11":"tag-chris-jones","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-george-karlaftis","14":"tag-kansas-city","15":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","16":"tag-kansascity","17":"tag-kansascitychiefs","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-steve-spagnuolo","20":"tag-travon-walker"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114804169598514911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}