2019 NFL Draft: Interview with Natrez Patrick, LB, Georgia

Georgia linebacker Natrez Patrick made some mistakes along the way, but he’s learned, grown, and is ready to take the next step in his football career.

“They could have let me go. To be honest I was supposed to be let go…”

The reality of being kicked out of the Georgia football program literally turned Natrez Patrick’s life around.

The former high school All-American and Georgia Class AAAAA Defensive Player of the Year went from four-star prospect to a near never-was as a member of the Bulldogs’ program.

Patrick, a four-year player at Georgia between two coaching staffs, spent some time sharing his story with NFL Mocks ahead of the biggest interviews he will ever have.

“I thought I knew hard work but I didn’t really know hard work until I got around those guys and the different intensities of the juniors and seniors,” Patrick recalled of his first year with the Georgia program.

It’s never easy for players to transition to the next level, whether going from high school to college or college to the pros. But most professional football players will probably tell you that the transition from being the big man on a high school campus to being the lowest on the totem pole in college is the most difficult.

You go from playing for fun to preparing like a professional.

Those expectations can be a shock to the system for many athletes, and as Patrick stated, his first year at Georgia was the ‘hardest’ he had to go through.

“I was doing things my way. I felt like I wanted to do things on my own.”

Patrick was yet another four-star prospect joining the Georgia program with high expectations trying to find his way. Some prospects just don’t have what it takes in terms of work ethic to make it at college football’s highest level. Patrick’s struggle was different.

When he describes doing things ‘my way’ he’s talking about decisions he made off the field that affected his ability to consistently make an impact on it.

Patrick was arrested three times while a member of the Bulldogs program for marijuana and was suspended multiple games for his infractions. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the condemnation from the media or the constant feelings of guilt that turned things around for him, either.

It was the fact that people around him kept believing in him, despite his failures.

Patrick was recruited to Georgia by Mark Richt’s staff in 2014. Specifically, he was recruited to play there by Bryan McClendon, who ended up being the interim head coach in Patrick’s first season, though it probably didn’t take too much convincing — despite 18 offers in total from college programs — to convince the Athens native to play for the Bulldogs.

Still, it’s rare for players to be kept on college programs through such a public and repetitive season of mistakes. Those players are not only dragged through the mud by the media, but they are often given fewer strikes than Patrick was given by the Georgia program.

In 2016, Georgia hired Kirby Smart as their new head coach and Mel Tucker (now the head coach at Colorado) was the defensive coordinator.

Smart was a rival coach at Alabama from 2008-15, and treated Patrick with a clean slate.

Patrick says Smart sat him down and talked with him, showing a willingness to walk with the player through his personal struggle rather than simply put football first.

Despite a change in coaching staff, Smart opted to keep Patrick around through his struggle, and it was that belief — the belief in who Patrick truly was as a person — that turned his life around for the better.

“It kind of made me realize my worth, almost,” Patrick said. “It was a point where I kind of wanted to give up on myself. It made me realize that someone sees something in you.”

Now, after four years and 40 games with Georgia, Patrick is moving on to the NFL. Many scouting services project he will be a late-round/UDFA, but Patrick has an opportunity in the interview process to win teams over and prove he’s a changed man.

Not only that, but he will get the chance to prove he can be an asset to their team.

Patrick is considered a traditional inside linebacker with great instincts, attacking ability, and ideal size at 6-foot-3, 242 pounds. Despite some concerns scouts have about his ability to play in coverage, Patrick told me he feels like he’s got the athleticism to excel in space and help a team on all three downs.

He didn’t participate at the Scouting Combine but showed off his skills to scouts and executives — including Bill Belichick and Thomas Dimitroff — at the Georgia pro day where he ran a 4.85 in the 40-yard dash and had a 9’10” broad jump along with 15 bench press reps.

Patrick will now get the chance to make the most of whatever opportunity he is afforded at the next level. Considering the new course he’s set for himself, I’d say he’s going to do just fine.