Patrick Jones is a pass rusher from the University of Pittsburgh. He’s a somewhat inconsistent player but he’s flashed a lot of potential and when everything is working for him he’s hard to stop. He had a lot of college production and he has traits that should translate to the NFL.

Strengths: 

  • Very Explosive Player

The first thing that you will be able to notice when watching Patrick Jones play is just how explosive of a player he really is. He is a twitched up athlete who accelerates quick and beats offensive tackles to their spot on the outside.

  • Great Quickness and Pursuit

Patrick Jones is a pretty good run defender because of how quick he is when changing directions, as well as when he’s in pursuit of a running back or quarterback. 

  • Nice Speed to Power Conversion Ability

Patrick Jones uses his great explosiveness to convert that into speed built up and then convert it into power. His short arms do limit how affective that can be but if he gets his hands inside the chest of a lineman he can really do a great job moving them.

  • Good Bend

Once Patrick Jones beats a guy to his landmark on the outside he has enough bend to actually get into the backfield and make a play on the quarterback. His hip dip and ankle flexibility is phenomenal. 

  • Solid Bag of Tricks

Jones does a good job beating people straight outside and then he complements that with a great swim move to the inside which is very effective. His arm over and forklift moves are also pretty good, and his pass rush moves are pretty developed.

Weaknesses: 

  • Needs to Improve Snap Timing

Patrick Jones is another guy who gets trapped in the cycle of timing the snap too early or too late. Sometimes he’ll get anxious and jump the snap causing a penalty and other times he’ll get off slow which hurts how effective he’ll be that snap.

  • Short Arms

It really sucks that Patrick Jones has short arms because he uses some nice moves that would be more effective with longer arms. Overall his arms allow tackles to outreach him and sometimes he can get engulfed by offensive linemen when he lets that happen.

  • Inconsistent Hand Usage

Patrick Jones has shown flashes of doing a great job using his hands to disengage and move offensive linemen but he doesn’t do it consistently enough and it’s a reason that he gives up the advantage in leverage battles and struggles to disengage at times.

Player Comp: I think Philadelphia Eagles edge rusher Derek Barnett is a solid player comparison for Patrick Jones. Both guys are pretty explosive off the snap and do a great job converting speed to power. Both guys can beat tackles off the edge with quickness with decent counters inside as well. Both guys have a decent amount of moves they use, all decently effective, and consistency has really been the pitfall for both of these guys. Barnett still hasn’t figured out the hand usage and snap timing, and Jones has those concerns right now. Barnett also has super short arms just like Jones, as well as a somewhat slow ability to read the run. This is a player comparison I really like.

Final Thoughts: Patrick Jones is a guy that I think I like a decent bit more than others do. He has solid traits matched up with good production and even though there are inconsistencies in his play he has great production in spurts often enough that he should have a decent floor while maintaining a high ceiling with a good defensive line coach to work on eye discipline and hand technique. Overall he’s a pretty refined guy with decent athletic traits on field, better than what his testing showed, and I think that he could be a good edge rusher despite his short arms. It is to be noted that he’s a strictly 4-3 DE but I think that I’d be willing to take a shot at a guy like Patrick Jones early is in the middle of round 2. I think the best team fits for him would be teams needing a rotational guy who can start right away but could also develop Jones into one of their top pass rushers as his career progresses and I think the Chiefs and Bills both fit that criteria and they both play 4-3 defenses as well.