Charlie Partridge encourages open dialogue of all kinds when he gathers his defensive linemen in their meeting room.

“A lot of guys are looser in meeting time and having fun with each other,” Pitt’s defensive line coach said. “Which is fine.

“Our meetings rooms are designed in a way where there’s a lot of back-and-forth and conversations.”

So far, it’s working.

Even after losing preseason All-American defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman, who opted out this season to prepare for the NFL Draft, Pitt is back on top of the national sack rankings.

The Panthers are No. 1 with 25 sacks and third in average per game (five). That’s a season after Pitt finished tied for second, with Wisconsin and SMU (a total of 51), and led the nation with 3.9 per game.

Yet, defensive end Patrick Jones II, who already leads the nation with seven, doesn’t allow talk in the meeting room to lose focus.

“He’s quick to shut that down before it becomes a distraction,” Partridge said. “He’s extremely serious.”

Football can be fun, mainly when a team is winning, but Jones said, “I don’t think of it like a joke. I take it serious like a job.

“It’s something I just do and impress upon other people. You take the game like that, it’s going to help you get a bigger paycheck when it’s time to do that.”

Jones and Pitt’s other bookend, Rashad Weaver, have combined for 111/2 sacks this season, one more than Twyman recorded in 13 games last year.

All three men are considered among the top defensive linemen who will be available in the NFL Draft in 2021.

Before that can happen, though, Jones and Weaver need to keep making the big, game-changing plays that could help pull Pitt out of its two-game losing streak. They get a chance to showcase their skills Saturday when Pitt visits No. 13 Miami.

In the loss last week to Boston College, for example, Jones and Weaver kept harassing quarterback Phil Jurkovec. Jones sacked him three times and Weaver made, perhaps, the most spectacular defensive play of Pitt’s season.

With the ball on the Pitt 25-yard line in the fourth quarter, Jurkovec was having trouble finding an open receiver. Weaver reached in and seized the football from Jurkovec’s grasp and created a turnover that kept the BC lead at three points.

The problems for opponents include trying to choose which player to double-team and then hoping to keep the other under control with one blocker.

That was the discussion when Pitt was quarantined during the pandemic, and Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin invited Pitt’s staff to talk pass-rushing techniques and strategy.

“One of the things (Tomlin) said was to make sure (he does) everything (he) can to give (Cam) Heyward and/or (Bud) Dupree and/or (T.J.) Watt one-on-one opportunities,” Partridge said.

Even now, Jones will use some of his free time to wander outside when the Steelers are practicing and get a sense of what it takes to be an NFL pass-rusher. He especially watches Watt and Dupree, the Steelers’ bookend outside linebackers who have combined for 71/2 sacks in four games.

“Every chance I get, I try to get out there and watch them,” he said, calling spending time so close to an NFL team a “lifetime opportunity.”

Partridge can’t ask for much more from Jones than his average of more than a sack per game. But he still sees room to grow.

“I really think he’s getting better every week,” he said. “I still think there’s room for him to grow. There are things we’re working on every day from a technique standpoint. I still think his ceiling is higher.

“I love how coachable he is, how he really strains to get better. That’s why I think he’s got a ways to go in terms of what he’s going to be able to accomplish this year.”

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