George Karlaftis did not try to dress up the number. The Kansas City Chiefs are 4-0 coming out of their bye, but they have only four sacks, tied for 31st in the league, and their defensive end said Wednesday that the pressure they have been getting is not enough on its own.
“Ultimately for us as a front, you know, front seven, defensive line, we got to get the quarterback on the ground by any means necessary, and we got to do a better job of that now,” Karlaftis said. “We’ve been pressuring. We’re doing a lot of different stuff. Hits, hurries, pressures, but at the end of the day we just got to get the quarterback down. That’s on us and we got to be better in that area.”
Zero sacks, one interception
Karlaftis has not added to that total yet. Through four games he has 15 tackles, two passes defensed and an interception, but no sacks. He had 10.5 sacks in 2023, eight in 2024 and six last season, and he said he used the early bye to look at his own tape. “Every bye week or every extended break, I always try to look at myself and break down what can I do better to help this team and to have more success individually in order to help this unit and this team,” he said. “So I definitely did a lot of that.”
His plan for getting home against the Los Angeles Chargers starts somewhere else. “It starts with stopping the run, earning the right to rush the passer, which we can improve on a lot,” Karlaftis said. He added that the job is “rushing the quarterback well, disciplined, winning your one-on-one matchup regardless of who you’re on, executing the call that Spags is going to call,” meaning defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.
“With every last breath”
Karlaftis was also asked about the last play of the Chiefs’ 30-27 win at Las Vegas on October 4. The Raiders had the ball at the Kansas City 49 with 10 seconds left, and Kirk Cousins’ pass was intercepted by Xavier Nwankpa at the Chiefs’ 36 as Karlaftis got to him. Karlaftis said Spagnuolo brought the play up on Tuesday.
“I knew they had 10 seconds or less,” he said. “Three-point difference at that time, and I remember last game they made us pay, 55, 60 yards, something like that. So I was just trying everything I could with every last breath to make sure they don’t get in field goal range.”
“One of the elite quarterbacks”
The Chargers arrive at 0-5, but Karlaftis said their record does not match the team he sees on film. “It’s a divisional opponent, so those games are really, really, really important,” he said. “They’re going to be hungry to get their first win. They’d like nothing more than to get a win against us, so we’ve got to be on our stuff. It’s a team that their record, I don’t think is indicative of the team that they are. They’re in every game.”
He was just as direct about Justin Herbert. “He’s one of the elite quarterbacks in the National Football League. He can make every single throw on the field. He’s extremely mobile. He’s accurate on the run. He can make you pay with his feet, and he’s real smart,” Karlaftis said. “So we got to bring it. We got to be really disciplined when we face a guy like that.”
The numbers suggest a chance up front. Herbert has been sacked 17 times in five games and has thrown seven interceptions against five touchdowns, playing behind a line without both starting tackles. Rashawn Slater is on injured reserve after ankle surgery, and Joe Alt (neck) did not practice Wednesday. Herbert has also run 24 times for 142 yards.
Karlaftis said the offense under first-year coordinator Mike McDaniel looks familiar. “They’ve incorporated, you know, the run game and a lot of his offense that we saw when we played him when he was in Miami,” he said. “There’s a lot of moving parts, and you’ve got to be really disciplined when you face a unit like that because they can make you pay in a lot of different ways.”
“Humble and hungry”
Karlaftis, a first-round pick out of Purdue in 2022, has been part of two Super Bowl-winning teams in Kansas City. Asked what he has learned about this group through four games, he made the comparison himself. “I’ve been a part of some great teams that have won Super Bowls, and this reminds me of teams that I can speak for,” he said. “It’s a resilient team of guys that are hungry and that love football. So those are three characteristics that can go a long way, and we just got to remain humble and hungry, and I think we can take it as far as we want to.”
He was less forthcoming about one thing. Asked about the shirt he wore to the podium, which reads “CRAM,” Karlaftis said Spagnuolo had them made and that several defenders wear them, including Chris Jones. He would not say what it means. “I’ll allow Spags to reveal it if he feels, if he deems it necessary,” he said.
The Chargers visit the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, October 18, at 4:25 p.m. EDT.
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