PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – After establishing himself as one of the best defensive ends in the ACC in 2019, Panthers Patrick Jones recognized as one of the best in the nation in 2020. Jones named consensus All-American and semi-finalist for the Bednarik and Lott trophies. Now time to see where that slots him in the NFL Draft.
Jones is anywhere from the late first round to third round in mock drafts. A NFL team is getting 17.5 sacks and 24 tackles for loss over the last two seasons with four forced fumbles and four passes defended.
A 6'5", 260-pound defensive end at Pitt, Jones has been training in Dallas and said able to play standing up. He watched a guy on an adjoining practice field live and on tape as much as possible. Jones studies the play of Steelers All-Pro outside linebacker TJ Watt as much as he can.
"I feel I can do perfectly fine at outside linebacker," Jones said. "I feel like I play football. I can line up anywhere and go to work and play ball. That's what I do, I play football."
Jones tweaked his hamstring while running the 40 during Pitt's Pro Day, so he doesn't have those numbers. He struggled at times at the Senior Bowl, although he did have a sack in the game, but says just look at his effectiveness in college.
"I can get around the edge, pass rush," Jones said. "That's on my film. I feel like I can drop into coverage too. That's not something that I had a lot of opportunity to put on film. That's something I'm very comfortable doing. That's something I train a lot in the off-season for."
"When I was talking to the teams its pretty much going over the film. I just do a real good job of breaking the defense down and explaining to them and showing to teams I'm a student of the game. I'm trying to prove to everybody I'm more than just an athlete. I'm a student of the game."
He said he did that with a number of teams with the Bengals, Jags and Lions the three teams that talked to him multiple times.
Most of the visits are now over, teams are meeting virtually and in-person trying to figure out their best fits. For the athletes, it's hard to stay away from mock drafts and social media. So for most, they just want it to end.
"All you can do is work hard," Jones said. "People are going to say what they want at the end of the day. If you work hard, hard work is always going to prove them wrong. The results of hard work is always going to be something good because when you put in that work it's going to give it back to you."
