CHARLOTTE -- The sight of a McCourty patrolling the back end of New England's secondary has been a staple of watching Patriots football since 2012.

Devin is a two-time Pro Bowler and former All-Pro at the position, as well as lock to play 16 games per season back there in Foxboro. His presence is as ho-hum as it gets.

But Jason? This was borderline stunner.

Near the end of the first half of Friday's 25-14 loss at Carolina, lifetime cornerback Jason McCourty took his first snaps at safety ever. Then halftime hit, he left, returned to the field and dropped back again for the Panthers' initial drives of the third quarter. Turns out, the position change was almost as sudden for McCourty as it was for viewers.

It wasn't until just days earlier he learned he'd be switching to safety for certain practice periods during the week. Before Friday, McCourty had only taken a handful of safety snaps in practice at Rutgers and kicked the idea around last year in Cleveland. Never once did he have the conversation in New England.

Entering kickoff, McCourty didn't even know if he'd play safety in Carolina. While he started at cornerback, he eventually logged most of his time against the Panthers at a foreign position. Looking ahead, McCourty has no idea how the Patriots will divide his snaps.

"I don't really know what their plan is moving forward," McCourty said."But for me, it was something that was asked of me, and I took it as a great opportunity to be able to go out there and kind of show myself what I can do at the position "

Reflecting on his performance, McCourty found a few lighthearted moments around his second-half series that all resulted in Panther points.

"Every time I came off the sideline, Dev had at least five to 10 coaching points on something I could've did better," he smiled.

And he found a few rookie ones, too; namely Curtis Samuel's 31-yard catch over the middle that set Carolina up at New England's 3-yard line.

"Yeah, I just want to be able to help my corner a little more on that Over route," he said. "Just playing the middle of the field trying to get a break out of there in our man-free coverage to help him."

Two plays later, McCourty recorded his undisputed highlight of the night: a 1-yard tackle for loss of Cameron Artis-Payne at the Pats' 4-yard line. It was the type of downhill play usually reserved for box players like Patrick Chung, a member of the Patriots safety group McCourty consulted before making his move.

The corner's questions were about what you'd expect.

"[He was] trying to figure out where his eyes should be, what type of technique he should do here," said fellow Rutgers safety Duron Harmon of McCourty. "But he's a veteran, he's been around this game a long time and played with some good safeties, too, so he had a good understanding of what he wanted to do and how to do it when he got out there."

With one week left until cutdown day, it's unclear exactly what McCourty's late switch means for the Patriots.

Are they down on the 31-year-old's abilities at cornerback? He did give up a touchdown last week on one of two targets against the Eagles.

Are they supremely confident in the young cornerbacks around him? Rookie J.C. Jackson played well again on Friday.

Are they uneasy about safety depth after Devin, Harmon and Chung? Jordan Richards and Eddie Pleasant have done little to inspire defensive confidence this preseason.

Or was it purely experimental? An idea they believed might be able to garner depth if executed properly, so they gave it a shot before the scores start to matter.

Perhaps it's a combination of two, three or all four. In any case, McCourty's performance went as expected: flashes of first-timer mixed with a few solid plays.

And so New England remains the same place it's seemingly been for weeks with the veteran who's slowly descended into a tight position battle and perhaps surprise-roster-cut territory: the great unknown.