Patrick McMorris – April 27, 2024
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Saturday, April 27, 2024
S Patrick McMorris
(I wanted to ask you about the whole pre-draft process, getting the phone call, just how this whole last several months played out to now being with the Dolphins?) – “It was great. Just from Combine workout, Hula Bowl, All-Star games, and just kind of playing this waiting game after that Combine, just talking to a few coaches here and there. Being able to get that call was definitely an amazing experience. I’m still kind of shocked and definitely happy. It was definitely a great experience those four months.”
(What would you say the Dolphins are getting in Patrick McMorris? What skillset do you offer?) – “I’m a discipline player. I’m aggressive. I’m able to play inside the box as well as outside, play in Cover 2 high safety look. I’m a smart and intelligent player who loves the game.”
(I wanted to ask about the day today, getting that call. I don’t know if there was stress or if there was anxiety waiting for the moment? Tell me about the excitement. Tell me about the stress. Tell me about the joy. Tell me about today.) – “It was a weird thing. I’ve been getting spam calls, and I thought this was just another one because I picked up and nothing went through for a couple seconds so I hung up. Then they called back again and then someone picked up. It was definitely kind of a little weird experience right there. The whole phone call, it’s just so surreal. You watch it on TV, you watch these guys get picked year-in and year-out seeing those videos of them getting the call. Now you’re being in that moment, it’s definitely a crazy experience. It was a dream of mine to get drafted and be able to play in the NFL. So just kind of continuously living out that dream, it was definitely an exciting moment. I’m still a little shaky right now. But I’m definitely happy.”
(When did you start watching the draft today? It came on at noon our time. Did you start as soon as it came on? And what was your feeling as each pick went on? Were you expecting you name to be called? How was that?) – “Right, so 9 a.m. my time, 12 p.m. your time, noon. I watched the full four through six (rounds) as of now. I woke up and watched it, just kind of seeing how many safeties were going to get drafted. I think it was like 14 or 15 ahead of me. So I knew teams still needed some safeties and just kind of hoping that a team would take a chance on me, and I’m glad the Dolphins did.”
(Tell me about the decision to transfer. Why did you do it? What all went into that?) – “So the main thing for me transferring from San Diego State to Cal was my older brother. He was, at the time, coaching at Utah and ended up getting a GA job with Cal where he played football as well and graduated from there. So he ended up getting a GA job during the spring, and I was able to kind of look at my options and see what the best fit for me was – if it was staying at San Diego State or leaving and going somewhere else. Like I said, that just kind of all aligned and it was just perfect timing for me to go into the portal, graduate from San Diego State as well and be a grad transfer and go to Cal and play under my brother. Cal has a great system and brought out a decent amount of safeties, I believe it’s like five or six in the past four years. So I knew I was going to go to a good program that had good coaches with Justin Wilcox and how he runs his defense, I knew I was going to go to a place I’m going to play and be wanted. So that kind of whole process, like I said, was kind of perfect timing with my brother and being able to go out there and just play.”
(You probably could’ve stayed at Cal because of COVID-19, right? Maybe you could’ve got another season. If that’s the case, why did you decide to come out now?) – “No, I had played my four seasons at San Diego State, my freshman year to my senior year. So without that COVID year, I would’ve had to come out last year. But thankfully with the COVID year, I was able to go back to college and be able to transfer to Cal.”
(What is your special teams experience, either in college or high school? And how much of a factor do you think that will be making this 53-man roster?) – “Yeah, I mean I played special teams all throughout high school and college. High school, I was mainly a returner, but going into college and being a bigger safety, I played on all four special teams my first two years at San Diego State. Then I was able to keep continuing playing special teams throughout my time at San Diego State and at Cal. So I’ve played special teams for five years now.”
(Have you ever been to South Florida and how excited are you to live down here?) – “I have not been to South Florida. I’ve been to Orlando for a little vacation, but besides that, that’s it.”
(Did you have any inkling that Miami was possibly going to draft you? Had you had much conversation with them or talk with them?) – “After the Combine, I had not talked to the Dolphins. A text here from the scout, but besides that, I hadn’t talked to the Dolphins throughout. But I had some good conversations when I was at the Combine with them.”
(So was today a surprise to you?) – “For the most part, yeah. But like I said, I knew some teams needed some safeties and we were expecting them to draft some safeties. So I was expecting to get picked up within the sixth or seventh round.”
(So it’s just a matter of you figuring out the spam call was actually the Dolphins huh?) – “(laughter) Yes sir.”
(Can you talk about how much you think your one season at Cal may have helped you get to where you are today?) – “Yeah, I mean I think it helped me tremendously. Being able to show that I can learn a whole new playbook within a short amount of time, be able to play in the Pac-12 where you have all these great quarterbacks who played this year, and kind of transitioning from a more interior safety where I was at San Diego State to more of a traditional safety and be able to roll down or play free. Cal helped me with that just because of our scheme and what we ran, so I think it definitely was a big help for me. And again, with just Cal’s record of bring out safeties, it was definitely a help.”
(Have the Dolphins told you anything about what they expect or what opportunity you’ll have with them?) – “We had some conversations. As of right now, I don’t know as much. But like I said, I’ve had some good conversations and am hoping to have some more.”
