The Kansas City Chiefs made a splash in April’s draft by selecting former Oklahoma pass rusher R Mason Thomas in the second round.
Thomas made his presence felt immediately in his NFL debut by registering a sack against Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix in Week 1. While he has had promising moments since — and has nine quarterback pressures on the year — Thomas has yet to get home again on an opposing quarterback. Kansas City’s entire pass rush has had a woefully slow start to 2026 with only nine total
sacks on the year.
Speaking before Wednesday’s practice, defensive end George Karlaftis recalled his own slow start to his career in 2022. He knows what Thomas — as well as first-round defensive tackle Peter Woods — are going through as the stat sheet continues to elude them.
“I had this conversation before this season,” Karlaftis explained, “and we’re having conversations from time to time in season. ‘Look guys, I was a first round pick. Whatever success I’ve had, I was a first-round pick, and I didn’t have a full sack until after Thanksgiving. ‘”
Adjusting to the NFL can be daunting. Ultimately, Karlaftis tallied 5.5 sacks over the last seven games of his rookie season and finished with 21 pressures.
“There’s ebbs and flows,” continued Karlaftis. “You doubt yourself. You see yourself do something good on the tape, and it makes a man of you to be honest. You’ve just got to produce at the end of the day. With those guys, always keep at it. It’s like in Finding Nemo when Dorie says, ‘Just keep swimming.’ “
The veteran believes the advice from the animated feature will eventually come through for the rookies.
“Those guys love football,” he said of Woods and Thomas. “When they just keep at it, keep chopping wood, keep improving, keep finding those little details in you game to where maybe that pressure becomes a sack. Or maybe that missed tackle becomes a TFL. It’s really about just finding the little things. I can remember myself vividly going through hours after games or after a bad practice of just figuring it out because it’s a long process and it takes everything out of you.”
In Karlaftis’ rookie season, a Week 8 bye week after facing the San Francisco 49ers provided a chance to work on his game.
“For me, personally,” he recalled, “I feel like it started clicking after the bye week. We played San Fran, and I felt like during the fourth quarter I missed two or three sacks. I was so ticked off. I was pissed at myself. I remember calling Joe Cullen maybe 20 times that week. ‘I’ve got to get it right. Coach, can you help me out?‘
“We kind of laid together a play of how I could be successful or how I could help this team more. I felt like it clicked. Whenever you have time off as a rookie — or as a vet t00 — you get a chance to reflect and review and ultimately improve on everything. For me, it was during that time. I really took a step back and I was like, ‘What am I doing well? What can I improve on?’ That’s really for me what it was.“
