Cardinals’ Chandler Jones not worried about being underrated

Arizona Cardinals linebacker Chandler Jones had as many sacks in his team’s win over the Giants on Sunday as he had in all of his junior season at Syracuse in 2010.

“You know, funny thing is, the most sacks I had in a season in college was four,” Jones told Bickley & Marotta on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station Monday. “So four in a game is pretty intense. My career stats in college was 10 sacks.”

Technically, Jones had 4.5 sacks his junior year, according to Sports Reference. But the point remains the same.

The 29-year-old nearly doubled his sack total in the 2019 season on Sunday as the Cardinals beat the Giants, 27-21, and sacked New York quarterback Daniel Jones eight times in the process. Chandler Jones now has 8.5 sacks this season through just seven games, good for third in the NFL behind Shaquil Barrett and Myles Garrett, who have nine each.

His career high is 17 sacks in 16 games in 2017, but now he’s on pace for more than 19 sacks.

So how do those outside of the state of Arizona view Jones? He’s a two-time Pro Bowler and former All-Pro selection, but has been neither the past two seasons despite getting 13 sacks last year. He also was omitted from the NFL Network’s top-100 players list that came out this past offseason, voted on by players.

When asked how long it takes to shrug that sort of thing off, Jones replied: “Immediately. Honestly, immediately.

“Ultimately though, it’s out of my control,” Jones said. “I think I’ve got to grasp with that more than anything. I can’t control who talks about me or how often they talk about me. Ultimately, all I have to do is do my job. If it gets spoken about, then so be it. If you attack it with that approach, then oh well.”

Good news for the Cardinals: Jones not being recognized with league accolades doesn’t preclude him from continuing to be the elite player he is.

Jones got a game ball on Sunday for the effort.

“You know, I gave that game ball to my dad,” Jones said. “He was at the game and he brought a lot of his friends there. I had 30 tickets to the game. Thirty tickets. And they’re $100 a piece.”

Maybe Jones will have to have his dad out at the games more often — even if that will cost him.

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