Patrick Jones II made an impact during the Carolina Panthers’ joint practice with the Houston Texans on Thursday, disrupting quarterback CJ Stroud several times. After the session, Jones said he was unsure how many sacks he had during practice but believed it was at least two.
“I got to go back and watch the tape and then see,” Jones said. “I might have more than two, you never know.”
Jones described being in a rhythm on the field: “It’s just when you’re in that flow, kind of like when you’re on 2K and the fire emoji come around you, you’re just on fire, you’re just out there just going, man. That’s what it feels like for real.”
The outside linebacker acknowledged that counting sacks can be difficult in practice because quarterbacks wear non-contact jerseys. “I feel like it’s kind of tricky, just whenever you get a good rush and you get close to him and you kind of see us kind of take off the gas and just slow down,” Jones explained. “We don’t want to hit him. We respect CJ a lot; hope he has a good year this year, and we don’t want to hurt nobody’s players, but yeah, just whenever we go out there, make a good rush to get close to the quarterback, we kind of just tone it down.”
Despite these challenges in tallying official stats during practice sessions, observers noted Jones’ presence in the backfield was consistent throughout drills. His performance is part of an effort by Carolina’s defense to improve its pass rush after his arrival as a free agent from Minnesota.
“Just a physical style of play, you know, exactly what we’re looking for to be disruptive on the edge, to really blow stuff up; it starts with the run game and he does that for sure,” Panthers head coach Dave Canales said about Jones.
“And then in a pass rush setting, he’s got a nice speed to power move, and he’s got counters, so he kind of keeps tackles guessing, and he can rush inside. So he’s doing a great job, and he’s a pro the way he prepares and works awesome.”
The Panthers’ defense showed improvement early in practice when Derrick Brown pressured Stroud out of bounds for another sack. The team also focused on run defense against Texans running back Nick Chubb by loading the box with their front seven as well as safeties Tre’von Moehrig and Lathan Ransom.
Moehrig made one of the most notable plays by delivering a hard hit on Houston receiver Xavier Hutchinson across the middle without taking him down completely due to practice rules.
“I was just playing football, you know, that’s really what it comes down to, just trying to be physical, make the plays when they come my way,” Moehrig said.
“For me, it’s really just going 100 percent. I mean I’m not really trying to think, you know, pull back or you know I’m just trying to play ball and just keep my mental clear and just do what I know how to do.”
Jones praised his teammate’s aggressive approach: “I love that. I mean go out there and hit people. That’s the type of person I want to play with,” Jones said. “We’re going to be physical for sure . We’re definitely going to come hit you too so you better get ready.”
However Stroud responded during late-practice drills by leading Houston’s offense downfield efficiently against Carolina’s first-team defense—a reminder that consistency remains an area for growth.
“Our standard today was to go out there and not let the heat faze us and just go out there and just try to dominate outside of the ball,” Jones said.
“I feel like we still got—I feel like at times we did ,and I feel like the whole part of the game is being consistent ,so I still feel like once we go out here ,and we’re consistent all the way around ,then I can say we truly dominated.”
