This past offseason, the Minnesota Vikings decided to let former third-round pick Patrick Jones test the waters in free agency, and it eventually resulted in the veteran edge rusher landing a two-year, $15 million contract from the Carolina Panthers.
Jones was decent during his tenure with the Vikings, but they were never going to pay him the amount of money he got from the Panthers, especially since Minnesota had 2024 first-round pick Dallas Turner waiting in the wings to get more time on defense.
Well, one game into his tenure with Carolina, and it already looks like the Vikings made the smart decision to move on from Jones earlier this year.
Former Minnesota Vikings edge rusher Patrick Jones stumbles in debut with Carolina Panthers
This past Sunday, Jones made his regular-season debut with the Panthers in their Week 1 matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars. In the end, the Jaguars got an easy 26-10 win over Carolina, and the former Minnesota pass rusher didn't do much to help his new team.
Jones was on the field for more than 60 percent of the Panthers' defensive snaps on Sunday, and he probably would've had even more if not for suffering an ankle injury in the matchup.
In the Week 1 contest, the former Vikings draft pick accumulated only one tackle, and he didn't generate a single pressure, according to data from PFF. Jones also had an abysmal pass-rush win rate of 4.5 percent on 23 pass-rush snaps.
Carolina, as a whole, only generated a total of five pressures in their Week 1 loss, which is not what they were likely expecting after signing Jones earlier this year to team up with fellow former Minnesota pass rusher, D.J. Wonnum.
Meanwhile, the Vikings generated a league-leading 30 pressures in their Week 1 win over the Chicago Bears on Monday.
13 of those pressures came from new defensive linemen Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave, who Minnesota was able to sign in free agency this offseason with some of the money they saved from not bringing Jones back.
There's still plenty of time left in the 2025 season, but so far, it seems like the Vikings made the correct decision to spend their money on Hargrave, Allen, and other impactful free agents instead of using it to re-sign Jones.