Tim Patrick’s steady rise from UDFA to featured WR

Taking a look at the steady rise of Tim Patrick from UDFA to featured WR.

Denver has long been a premiere landing spot for undrafted free agents, and from Chris Harris Jr to Rod Smith, CJ Anderson to Phillip Lindsay watching these guys find success on the field is a time-honored Broncos tradition.

Tim Patrick could be the next in this line. The San Diego native played college ball at Utah and capped off his career as a Ute with a 711 yard, 5 TD senior campaign. In a 2017 draft class populated by the likes of Mike Williams, Juju Shmith-Schuster, Cooper Kupp, Chris Godwin, and Kenny Golladay, Patrick slipped through the cracks.

Though it was a deep position group that year, it’s surprising that someone didn’t fall for his measurables alone, as teams so often do in the draft process. Tim Patrick is 6’4″, 212 pounds, and ran a 4.47 40 at his pro day. Elite tools by every standard.

His film at Utah precluded everything we’ve come to know about his game in Denver. He was physical, a hard worker, and a deadly threat on deep routes and jump balls. After going undrafted he initially signed with Baltimore, then San Francisco, but luckily ended up in Denver to start his rookie year.

He started as a practice squad guy but kept impressing his coaches, staying ready in the wings, and preparing to be the next man up. He worked behind Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, and Courtland Sutton for years, and every time the Broncos called his number, he delivered.

For all his tools, toughness, and technicality, this is perhaps, Tim Patrick’s greatest trait: he’s clutch. He burst on the scene in the 4th Quarter of a Raiders game, breaking off a huge gain that put the team in position to win a game-winning field goal. Over the next two years, he was still a rotational target but flexed his ability to pick up chunk plays when they were most needed. Also, fans should take note of how he looks the ball into his hands consistently and wraps up every. single. time. he takes a hit. You love to see it.

In 2020, he has finally named a starter, and the trio of Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, and Patrick (not to mention Noah Fant at TE) was poised to cause serious problems for defenses.

Unfortunately, the injury bug struck time and again, and now Tim Patrick finds himself as perhaps the team’s top WR next to Jerry Jeudy.

Since Courtland Sutton, Noah Fant and even KJ Hamler have gone down he’s racked up 10 catches for 156 yards and 2 scores, leading all the team’s targets through the past 2 games.

His emergence was key to our first win versus the Jets, and if he can put up numbers like this as a security blanket for Jeff Driskel and Brett Rypien, Broncos Country should be very excited to see what he can do when Drew Lock comes back into the fold.

He’s just one more promising bright spot in this young offense, and though this season has not gone how we were all hoping, it’s important to look at the silver linings. If he emerges as a #1 target this year, defenses are going to have even more trouble accounting for him in the future when we can hopefully boast a fully loaded offense.

Pat Shurmur likes to spread defenses out, and if we have two big boundary threats like Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick the possibilities are endless. With safeties accounting for them over the top, they’ll open up so much for Jerry Jeudy all over the field, KJ Hamler sneaking up those seams and Noah Fant in the middle.

Fans should note, however, that this is a contract year for Tim Patrick. He signed a 1-year, $750,000 deal this offseason, and will be a restricted free agent come March. While this gives the team a good chance of retaining him, we may end up having to compete with another team’s offer if it gets to that point, and hopefully, an extension is in the works given his performance so far.

Either way, Tim Patrick has a bright future in this league as (per Vic Fangio) “He’s a good NFL receiver”. Things are looking up for the young wideout, and I have a feeling the best is yet to come.