Top 10 Quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft: No. 9 Shea Patterson

History

With Shea Patterson from the Michigan Wolverines at number nine, we find a journeyman college quarterback in a sport that is typically devoid of such things.

A former five-star recruit according to 247 Sports, Patterson ranked fourth in the entire country for the 2016 recruiting class and was first among quarterbacks. Patterson was such a hot commodity in college recruiting circles that he committed to the University of Arizona nearly three years before he would even be entering college in 2012. Programs such as Arkansas, Alabama and Arizona State offered him spots on their team.

While still in high school, Patterson moved to Louisiana with his family and decommitted from Arizona, eventually opting to attend Ole Miss and play behind Chad Kelly his freshman season.

Expected to redshirt in 2016, Patterson played his first game near the end of the 2016 regular season, filling in for an injured Kelly. In 2017, Patterson started for Ole Miss just as the school began being mired in controversies regarding serious NCAA violations.

The rule-breaking went so deep that the NCAA accused Ole Miss of “lack of institutional control”, in response to players being allegedly paid to attend Ole Miss, along with other recruiting violations. “Lack of institutional control” is effectively considered a death sentence for most school’s football program, as scholarships can be slashed for young athletes and sanctions can be imposed that make recruiting extremely difficult.

After the school let head coach Hugh Freeze resign after a separate untoward incident, the NCAA announced that Ole Miss would be banned from the postseason in 2018, after already self-imposing a bowl ban in 2017. More sanctions were added on top of this, including Show-Cause restrictions, that limit a coach or trainer’s ability to recruit for the school.

Going forward, the Ole Miss football program would be seriously hampered in its ability to surround Patterson with quality talent for the rest of his college career.

Shortly after this, Patterson sought and was granted permission to transfer.

In 2018, Patterson transferred to Michigan where he played for two seasons under the tutelage of former San Francisco 49’ers and Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh. Having a seasoned coach, who had played quarterback for years both in the league and at Michigan, Patterson was in a fantastic place to succeed.

Despite going 19-7 in his two seasons at Michigan, Patterson never got the attention other quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft have. The Michigan Wolverines are a team that has appeared to be on the brink of cracking into the core of elite college football programs for several years now.

But every season, Michigan runs into Ohio State in their schedule, and with the exception of one season since 2003, they lose and send their National Championship dreams plummeting. The last two defeats Michigan was ranked in the top 15 before they played the Buckeyes, making their path much more difficult.

Patterson’s draft stock has been stunted because of these difficult losses. The fact he bounced around from school to school must have made it difficult for the senior to get comfortable in any team’s offense as well. Patterson at times shows quality quarterback skills but continues to be inconsistent down to down.

Patterson has been considered either a Day three quarterback in the draft, with some analysts speculating he will go undrafted. Recent reports suggest Patterson is leaving the door open on a baseball career as well if things don’t work out with the NFL.

Patterson has been preparing for his Pro-Day and Combine performances to come, but with a loaded quarterback class in the 2020 NFL Draft, Patterson’s draft stock has been considered pretty low by most draft analysts.

But the Senior Bowl practices may have changed all of that and could signal a changing of the tides for the young quarterback.