Michigan Football: Shea Patterson at least deserves a shot in the NFL

Michigan football had 10 former players selected in the 2020 NFL draft last weekend but Shea Patterson wasn’t one of them. Here’s why he deserves a shot.

The NFL draft process is always surprising and one of the biggest surprises so far is that former Michigan football quarterback Shea Patterson hasn’t been drafted or signed by an NFL team.

It wasn’t a huge shock that Patterson wasn’t selected in the 2020 draft. He was always going to be a borderline pick after an up-and-down season and career at Michigan football.

To think, before the Peach Bowl against Florida, Patterson announced he wasn’t entering the 2019 draft and a year later, he was an afterthought.

Patterson doesn’t have elite size or athleticism at the quarterback position and even though he has a pretty solid arm, he has struggled with accuracy issues.

A huge red flag for NFL scouts probably came when Patterson went from completing better than 64 percent of his passes in 2018 to just 56 percent in 2019. Yes, Patterson was playing in a new offensive system, but no matter you how slice it, that was a step back.

After a poor start to the season, Patterson did have some good moments. He played really well against Michigan State, however, against Ohio State, Penn State and Alabama, he basically put together one good half and that was it.

Shea simply couldn’t put a complete game together against an elite team and that had to hurt him. But you still expected him to at least sign with a team as a rookie free agent.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity...I will be more than ready when my number is called.
— Shea Patterson (@SheaPatterson_1) April 27, 2020

Brian Lewerke of Michigan State signed with New England after the draft and Patterson has at least as much potential as he does.

I’d argue that Patterson has a better arm. On underneath throws, Patterson has proven to be pretty accurate. His issue comes with deep balls. How many times did we see him miss Nico Collins or Donovan Peoples-Jones? He’s also not great at hitting receivers in stride or progressing through his reads.

If I had to guess, his struggles reading the defense may be giving NFL teams pause. You can’t lock onto receivers in the NFL or bail from the pocket too early, something Patterson did all the time at Michigan.

Still, for comparison sake, Lewerke completed 57 percent of his passes with 48 touchdowns and 32 interceptions. His best season came as a sophomore. The Spartans beat Michigan football that year and Lewerke threw 20 touchdowns compared to seven interceptions.

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But he’s never reached 60 percent completion percentage and over the past two seasons, he’s thrown 25 touchdowns and 24 picks. Patterson, on the other hand, completed 60 percent the last two years to go along with 45 TD passes and 15 INTs.

Obviously, stats aren’t everything. But just watching them, Patterson seems more talented, both as an athlete and a thrower. So why would Lewerke get signed as a free agent and not Patterson?

Of course, there is still time. But the top rookie free agents rarely last more than a few days and it’d be one thing if Patterson was trying to decide on a team. From his tweet last night, it sounds like he hasn’t received an offer.

At this point, his best chance of making a roster might be impressing in a tryout or a rookie mini-camp, if those even occur. The former five-star recruit has the ability and you’d figure a team would at least invite him to training camp as a backup arm.

But something has to be giving them pause. Maybe they just don’t see many traits worth developing, however, with some of the other guys getting signed, you have to think Patterson will at least get a shot before it’s all said and done.

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Whether anything comes of it, will be up to him. Either way, his professional football career is off to a rocky start.

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