Shea Patterson was a highly-touted recruit out of high school. He was brought to Ole Miss under Hugh Freeze in 2016, earning the second-string job behind starting QB Chad Kelly. When Freeze resigned suddenly in 2017, it opened up the opportunity for Patterson to transfer without losing a year of eligibility.
Instead of sticking with the Rebels under Matt Luke and competing with QB Jordan Ta’amu, Patterson transferred to the University of Michigan. There he had a chance to play for coach Jim Harbaugh. Patterson was named the starter for the Wolverines in 2018.
Consistency has been a big problem for Patterson since joining the college football ranks. He has some brilliant moments when improvising, but he also has some questionable decisions that need to be coached out of him. He’s done an alright job taking care of the football in his career, but he still misses too many easy throws.
In Patterson’s final season at Michigan he started to get into some more advanced RPO concepts and he saw mixed results. The biggest problem became fumbles at the mesh point, with Patterson putting the ball on the ground. At the same time, he did a much better job identifying the correct read compared to previous seasons.
Stats:
2016: Three games played. 72-of-132 for 880 passing yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions.
2017: Seven games played. 166-of-260 for 2,259 passing yards, 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
2018: 13 games played. 210-of-325 for 2,600 passing yards, 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
2019: 13 games played. 214-of-381 for 3,061 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Combine results
Height: 6-1
Weight: 212 pounds
Hands: 9 3/8″
Arms: 30 1/2″
40-yard dash: 4.71s
10-yard split: n/a
225-pound bench: n/a
Vertical: 31 inches
Broad Jump: n/a
20-yard shuttle: 4.50s
3-Cone Drill: 7.14s
Highlights:
2016
2018
2019
Fit with the Chiefs:
It’s easy to see what Andy Reid and the Chiefs’ evaluators like about Patterson. He’s a former five-star recruit that didn’t exactly meet his expectations in college. They’re hoping that they can find a diamond in the rough that can play well in their system.
Patterson is a bit of a game manager type at quarterback. He has decent arm strength and accuracy. He has good mobility and is capable of working off-script. The best thing is the improvement that he showed in the RPO game during his senior season. The Chiefs ran the most RPOs in the NFL last season, so having a quarterback who can execute on those plays is important, even if it’s only during practice.
With all of that in mind, it’s hard to imagine that Patterson will be anything more than a training camp arm in Kansas City. He’ll have a chance to compete with former Ole Miss teammate Jordan Ta’amu for the No. 3 job for the Chiefs. The No. 2 job is squarely Chad Henne’s because there’s no way for Kansas City to get out of his contract in 2020 without burning money.
Chiefs’ undrafted free agents
| Position | Player | School | Article Release Date |
| QB | Shea Patterson | Michigan | 5/26 |
| WR | Maurice Ffrench | Pittsburgh | TBA |
| LB | Bryan Wright | Cincinnati | TBA |
| OC | Darryl Williams | Miss. St. | TBA |
| CB | Hakeem Bailey | West Virginia | TBA |
| P | Tommy Townsend | Florida | TBA |
| WR | Kalija Lipscomb | Vanderbilt | TBA |
| DB | Rodney Clemons | SMU | TBA |
| OT | Yasir Durant | Missouri | TBA |
| DE | Tershawn Wharton | Missouri S&M | TBA |
| WR | Justice Shelton-Mosley | Vanderbilt | TBA |
| CB | Jalen Julius | Ole Miss | TBA |
| WR | Aleva Hifo | BYU | TBA |
| LB | Omari Cobb | Marshall | TBA |
| WR | Cody White | Michigan St. | TBA |
| CB | Lavert Hill | Michigan | TBA |
| WR | Andre Baccelia | Washington | TBA |
| OG | Jovahn Fair | Temple | TBA |
| CB | Javaris Davis | Auburn | TBA |
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