An emotional Patrick Jones returns to the field, armed with a roadmap for Nic Scourton

“I was in Minnesota for a long time behind a lot of great players in most of my career, so it felt like last year was like my chance to really, really show everybody, and I felt like when I started to heat up, that happened,” recalled Jones. “So it kind of hit me at a hard time.”

At the time, it seemed as if everything had fallen apart. Goals went unmet, challenges shifted. The season Jones had dreamt of for so long wasn’t meant to be. He had to completely realign his view of the 2025 season. Now, in hindsight, he knows it was something that needed to happen.

“I’ve always been the type to look adversity in the face and then tell it, ‘I’m going to conquer you.’ Maybe the thoughts crept in a little bit, but when they did, I just knew it was the devil, so I knew that God had big plans for me. So I knew that I would come back,” Jones said. “It was probably the biggest blessing that ever happened to me when I think about it.

“It was the biggest blessing for me because it showed me who was there for me. It really showed me who was really there for me, who I really had in my circle, and the people who were there for me; it made them closer to me. It just made me really appreciate them and everybody like that. And then it just really helped me build my relationship with God.

“It gave me a chance to really build myself up better mentally and physically. I feel like I’m the strongest I can be right now. So it just gave me time to really work on myself.”