In what might be the most loaded position group in Kansas City Chiefs history, paring down just four defensive ends to make the franchise Mount Rushmore was an impossible task. Over the 60-plus-year tenure, the team has featured great sack-getters from every era.
Some who just missed the cut were the 1960's Super Bowl winning duo of Jerry Mays and Aaron Brown, who set the defensive standard for those to follow. Art Still and Mike Bell, who were two of the very few saving graces of a truly poor 1980's era of Chiefs football. And Jared Allen, who only played four seasons in KC in the mid 2000s, but amassed 43 sacks and over 200 tackles.
But enough talk on the guys, not featured. Below is KC Kingdom's 10th edition of our ongoing offseason of "Chiefs All-Time Mount Rushmore," with guys who put the fear of God into opposing quarterbacks.
Derrick Thomas headlines the next edition of Chiefs All-Time Mount Rushmore, with edge-rushers galore deserving of a spot
Neil Smith (1988-96)
A clear deserving player on this list is Neil Smith, whom the Chiefs traded up for in the 1988 Draft, one spot to select second overall. Smith's career was a slow burn as he accounted for just 26.5 sacks in his four years with the Chiefs and a lone Pro Bowl selection in 1991. Despite his draft pedigree, Smith played second fiddle to the next guy, Derrick Thomas, for much of his career.
It was in his fifth professional campaign when Smith really started to pull his weight and carve out a name for himself alongside the exceptional play of Thomas. From 1992-95, Smith exploded onto the scene with four straight seasons of double-digit sacks and a league-high of 15 in '93, which earned him his one and only first-team All-Pro. Smith also stacked on four more Pro Bowl nods.
After a quiet six-sack season in '96, Smith's contract with the Chiefs was up. He opted to join AFC West division rival Denver Broncos, where he was a veteran leader on their own back-to-back Super Bowl victories.
All in all, Smith's nine-year stint in Kansas City was certainly worth his No. 2 pick status and then some. He is one of just four Chiefs players all-time with at least 85 sacks to go along with 32 forced fumbles and over 500 tackles. Smith also made the All-1990's Hall of Fame defensive team and was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Honor in 2006.
Derrick Thomas (1989-99)
Now for the aforementioned Derrick Thomas, who is pretty unarguably the greatest Chiefs defender of all-time and one of the best pure pass-rushers in NFL history. At a lighter 6'3", 245 lbs, Thomas had elite get-off speed and bend to quickly get to the quarterback. He was drafted fourth overall by KC in the 1989 NFL Draft and paired up with Neil Smith to create one of the most-feared pass-rushing tandems the league has ever seen.
Thomas was legit from the jump with 10 sacks in his rookie season, easily earning him a Pro Bowl and the Defensive Rookie of the Year awards. He doubled that total a year later to 20 sacks to go along with four forced fumbles and 63 total tackles. In all honesty, Thomas got robbed of Defensive Player of the Year as he got one more sack than the great Bruce Smith in one less game played. Nevertheless, Thomas continued a streak of Pro Bowl selections from '89 to '97.
Derrick Thomas played all 11 of his NFL years in Kansas City. His counting stats, far and away, exceed those of anybody else with 126.5 sacks, 44 forced fumbles, and one solo tackle shy of 600. He was a nine-time Pro Bowler, two-time first-team All-Pro, joined Smith on the All-1990's Hall of Fame defensive team, and was the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award recipient in 1993.
Thomas died much too soon at the age of 33 due to a blood clot in his lungs caused by a car accident two weeks prior. He was posthumously enshrined in the Chiefs Hall of Honor in 2001 and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009. D.T. is the gold standard of what being a Kansas City Chief means and will continue to be loved and revered by Chiefs fans for many years to come.
Tamba Hali (2006-17)
The second lifelong Chiefs on this list, Tamba Hali, was a true model of consistency throughout his career and deserved more recognition than he got. The 20th overall pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, Hali made an immediate impact with eight sacks, five forced fumbles, and over 60 tackles as a rookie. He was a hulking force to deal with at 6'3", 275 lbs.
Hali played in at least 15 games every year of his Chiefs career, but the last, proving that being on the field was a skill set. His first four seasons saw him perform up to standards for the most part, but it was the 2010 season when Hali mastered his game and put up a career-high 14.5 sacks on nearly 30 QB hits. Oddly enough, this did not even warrant what would've been his first Pro Bowl selection.
Hali would go on to put up two more seasons of double-digit sacks, finally beginning his five-consecutive year Pro Bowl streak from 2011-15 to go along with a pair of second-team All-Pros. He played his last down of football after the 2017 season, but did not officially retire until May of 2021, when Hali signed a ceremonial one-day contract with the Chiefs.
Hali's decade-plus Chiefs tenure endeared him to fans. He ranks second all-time in franchise sacks at 89.5, with Chris Jones right on his tail, just two behind. Hali also amassed over 100 tackles for loss as a fantastic run stopper, 32 forced fumbles, and 16 passes defensed. He was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Honor in 2024.
Justin Houston (2011-18)
The only non-first-round pick of this list is Justin Houston, who had to wait until the third to hear his name called by Kansas City. While his departure from the franchise was certainly not quiet, and without warranted blame from both sides, Houston's peak that he reached on the Chiefs is why he deserved a spot on this list.
After an emerging rookie season, Houston burst onto the scene with 10 sacks and a Pro Bowl selection in his sophomore year. His 2013 campaign was even better as he put up 11 sacks in the same number of games played, adding another Pro Bowl notch to his belt. It was in 2014 when Justin Houston emerged as one of the league's top edge-rushers and came oh so close to breaking the sack record.
At the time, it was Michael Strahan's 22.5 that led the history books. Houston's four-sack game at the end of the season got him a half off, and he probably would have broken it had Bob Sutton not inexplicably dropped Houston into coverage instead of allowing him the chance at glory.
Nevertheless, Houston made his lone first-team All-Pro for his efforts that season. After four more years of quality play, the Chiefs released Houston prior to the 2019 season, after the two sides could not come to terms with a reworked contract or trade partner, capping off his eight-year stint in KC. His 78.5 sacks rank fifth in franchise history, to go along with nearly 400 total tackles and over 100 QB hits. Houston, despite the rocky end to his Chiefs career, should no doubt be enshrined in the team's Hall of Honor at some point in the future.
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