ANN ARBOR — It took over a week, but former Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson has found an NFL home.
The Toledo native is signing as an undrafted free agent with the Kansas City Chiefs. His agent Bryan Ehrlich of Priority Athletes confirmed the deal to The Blade.
Patterson is not the only former Wolverine to sign with the reigning Super Bowl champions from this draft class. Defensive end Mike Danna was selected by Kansas City in the fifth round with the No. 177 overall pick. Cornerback Lavert Hill also signed with the Chiefs as a priority free agent last week.
Of Michigan’s 13 players who were looking to get drafted, 10 were selected last week. Of the remaining three, both Hill and tight end Sean McKeon signed free agent deals fairly quickly after the draft concluded on Saturday. Patterson was the lone Wolverine still in search of a landing spot.
While at Michigan, Patterson was named the team’s MVP for the 2019 season after throwing for 3,061 yards, becoming just the third player in program history to surpass the 3,000-yard mark in a single year. But compared to 2018, his passer rating dropped from 149.8 to 139.4, and his completion percentage dropped from 64.6 to 56.2. Early in the season he battled with injuries, including injuring his oblique against Middle Tennessee in the season opener. After Michigan’s game against Penn State, he said that was the first time he felt “ 100 percent healthy.”
He started in both 2018 and 2019 for Michigan after transferring from Ole Miss and earning immediate eligibility. In his two years in Ann Arbor, he threw for 5,661 yards, 45 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions.
One of the biggest concerns about Patterson throughout the pre-draft process was his consistency, decision-making, and accuracy. The Athletic draft analyst Dane Brugler projected him to be a priority free agent in his draft preview, saying that Patterson’s arm strength and athletic traits would be just enough to “tease evaluators.”
NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein gave Patterson a 5.50 prospect grade, giving him the chance to make the end of a roster or an NFL practice squad. He described Patterson as an “undersized, energetic quarterback who put tantalizing moments together on tape, but failed to sustain it at a high level.”
Coming out of high school at IMG Academy, Patterson was rated as a five-star recruit as well as the No. 1 quarterback in the class of 2016 and the No. 4 overall prospect, per 247sports’ composite rankings.
In Kansas City, Patterson will join quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes, as well as former Michigan quarterback Chad Henne and Jordan Ta’amu, a former Ole Miss quarterback.
