Before becoming one of the Broncos’ top wide receivers, Tim Patrick was a tall, skinny 19-year-old with untapped potential.

But unlike many young and talented football players, few knew of Patrick. The San Diego native wasn’t highly recruited and he didn’t attend a college football powerhouse like many of his peers, instead he started his career at Grossmont Community College.

“He could jump out the roof and he was pretty fast,” said Michael Jordan, Patrick’s coach at Grossmont College. “He didn’t really run routes that good and he didn’t really understand the details about things, but he’d run out there and make plays … You look at him now and he’s just a totally different guy. He’s much bigger and so physically well put together.”

Patrick played both football and basketball for Grossmont during his days in El Cajon, Cali., eventually earning a scholarship to play football at Utah. Now 27, Patrick is in his fourth season in the NFL and leads the Broncos with two receiving touchdowns, while also being their second-leading receiver with 12 receptions for 174 yards. And after already coming off the best year of his career in 2020, Patrick looks poised to be signed to his biggest paycheck yet following this season — whether that’s signed by the Broncos or another team, is unclear.

What is clear is that someone is going to pay for the undrafted wideout’s talents. And rightfully so, because as he showed last Sunday against the Jets — in which he caught five passes for 98 yards — he’s a game-changer, and an important one for the Broncos, already down two of their four starting receivers in Jerry Jeudy and KJ Hamler.

“I think Tim is a really good receiver — I always have,” coach Vic Fangio said last week. “He caught the 50/50 balls and caught the balls inside the hash and inside the numbers — wrangled them in. Tim’s a damn good NFL receiver.”

A damn good NFL receiver.😤 @Tpstreets 😤 pic.twitter.com/PYQFSLznb1

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) September 28, 2021

In 2020 Patrick totaled 51 receptions for 742 yards and six touchdowns.

“I’m never going to get viewed as that guy just because I wasn’t drafted so they think my ceiling isn’t high,” Patrick said of being underrated, “but I’m a different type of undrafted guy so my ceiling is pretty high.”

Patrick has taken advantage of his opportunity, thanks to his never-ending will to win. 

“He just kept getting better little by little by little,” Broncos wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni said. “(He) never complained about not getting opportunities Year 1 or Year 2, just kept working and the ball finds energy and he finally started to get the ball.”

‘Brutally competitive’

Prior to attending Grossmont, Patrick was a standout at University City High School in San Diego, where he played football and basketball.

On the football field, he was all-league and team MVP as a senior in 2010, recording 27 receptions for 578 yards and six touchdowns. And on the basketball court, he was second-team all-league and team MVP as a senior, helping University City to a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Championship by averaging 13.1 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.

“I’ve coached a long time and he’s one of a handful of kids you coach in your career that you know is special,” said Patrick’s high school football coach, John Hutsel. “In basketball, it was get the ball in his hands and let him find a way to win. In football, it was throw the ball up and let him go get it — no one could cover him.

“He just had a will to win. A will to win every personal and individual battle. That’s just who he was.”

But Patrick had almost no offers out of high school, forcing him to attend Grossmont College, which is 20 minutes from University City.

Patrick was immediately one of Grossmont’s best football and basketball players when he arrived on campus. But while attempting to juggle both sports, he struggled in the classroom, becoming academically ineligible his second year. That didn’t stop Patrick, though. He got his grades up and spent his off-time working on his craft.

“He came back and he stuck with it,” Jordan said. “As a freshman, he was a good-natured kid but was maybe a little too loose. He came back and took care of business, and I’m sure he’s glad he did now.”

It was in that third year, in 2013-14, when Patrick really excelled.

That season he was a first-team all-PCAC selection, totaling 53 receptions for 964 yards and eight touchdowns. He averaged 87.6 yards per game and 18.2 yards per catch. In a game against Orange Coast County, he accounted for over 250 yards of offense alone. 

“He just had those big hands, a huge catch radius and phenomenal ball skills,” Jordan said. “If I was a quarterback, I’d be sending the ball his way because even if he’s covered, he has a chance to make a play.”

A few days after the football season he was starting for the basketball team in their winter tournament, for which he was named MVP.

“He’s kind of screwed it up for us because he was so good as a basketball player that now everybody on the football team says, ‘Well, Tim Patrick played on the basketball team for you, I can, too.'” said Doug Weber, Grossmont’s head basketball coach. “No, he’s special. He was just brutally competitive. Our team just got that much better when he joined us. And he was a hell of a defender because of his competitive attitude. He was never afraid of a challenge — he always guarded the other team’s best player.

It’s shouldn’t be a surprise because of how he plays football, but #Broncos WR Tim Patrick was a damn good basketball player at Grossmont College. His coach, Doug Weber, told me he could have played professionally overseas if he wanted to: https://t.co/3pndXU0JGn pic.twitter.com/Bz9gVI5OW2

— George Stoia III (@GeorgeStoia) October 1, 2021

“He was so explosive athletically. He would go get a rebound well above the room, he’d block shots and then he’d go dunk it. There would be times where he would get a rebound and be a full two feet above everybody.”

Playing basketball was nothing more than a fun hobby for Patrick, Weber said. While he was arguably the team’s best player, averaging 10 points and six rebounds per game at forward, football was always his priority. Though, Weber claims Patrick could have played professional basketball overseas if he had wanted to.

Instead, he chose to chase his NFL dream.

“Some guys get their shot and some guys don’t,” Jordan said. “Obviously, he’s not messing this one up. And it’s just awesome. You talk about where he came from and how much he matured in his time here — I’m endlessly proud of him.”

‘A player to a pro’

After three seasons at Utah, in which he suffered several injuries including a broken leg and totaled 61 receptions, 888 yards and five touchdowns, Patrick went undrafted in 2017.

He originally signed with the Ravens before ending up on the 49ers for most of training camp. He eventually joined the Broncos’ practice squad halfway through the season.

“He was one of my favorite guys in camp that year,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “I thought we had a guy, and we were unable to hold on to him, unfortunately. We wanted to — I wanted to for sure, and I know we all did, but we weren’t able to with the situation the way it was at the time with our roster. He’s everything you thought he could be.”

Patrick didn’t play for the Broncos in 2017, but remained patient. And it was when Azzanni arrived in 2018 that Patrick got his real shot.

Azzanni saw something in Patrick, knowing he could one day be a contributor on offense, but also a key player on special teams right away. He played 216 special teams snaps in 2018, primarily serving as the team’s gunner on punt.

“I kind of had a feeling Tim could be a good player because he did everything full speed,” Azzanni said. “He’s the kind of guy that, in the offseason, running around in his underwear, might not look as good and then you put pads on and you’re like ‘Woah, this guy is a really good football player.'”

In 2018, he caught 23 passes for 315 yards and one touchdown. In 2019, despite only playing in eight games after breaking his hand in Week 1, he caught 16 passes for 218 yards. And in 2020, he caught 51 passes for 742 yards and a team-high six touchdowns.

This season, through three games, he’s on pace to catch 68 passes for 986 yards and 25 touchdowns. Though he likely won’t hit all those marks, Patrick has made his presence felt early this season. 

“We’ve seen the success that he’s had over the past couple seasons and over these past few games,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton said. “It’s because of how he does stuff. In our room, we always say, ‘Doing things differently.’ He’s one of those people that embodies that throughout his entire day. On Sundays, he goes out there and makes plays. It’s fun to watch.”

The secret behind Patrick’s success is simple — he doesn’t drop passes. According to Pro Football Focus, Patrick had zero drops last season. This year, he also has zero drops, catching 12 of his 13 targets. He’s also one of only two players with a perfect 158.3 passer rating when targeted, joining Seattle’s Tyler Lockett.

Essentially, when the ball is thrown Patrick’s way, he’s likely going to find a way to catch it. He said Monday his mentality is, “if I can’t get it, nobody can get it.” He showcased that in the fourth quarter against the Jets, with two contested catches — one for 19 yards and another for 31.

“You can’t worry about other things when you’re catching the ball because soon as you take your mind off catching the ball, that’s when you drop it,” Patrick said. “I literally just focus on doing whatever I have to do to bring the ball down.”

Pair that playmaking ability with his 6-foot-4, 212-pound stature and nearly 81-inch wingspan and 9.5-inch hand size, Patrick is an incredibly difficult receiver to cover.

Timmy Toe Tap. 👣This @Tpstreets catch was unreal. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/egFpBmgK67

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) September 27, 2021

“Some guys have natural ball skills, some guys have to work at it. He’s a guy who has to work at it, and he does all the time,” Azzanni said. “He catches probably 200 balls a day easily before and after practice. He’s worked on it hard. That was something that was his weakness actually in college. That was one of the reasons he went undrafted, that and his injury. People didn’t think he could catch and I think he’s proven those people wrong.”

But above all, Patrick has matured.

When Azzanni first started working with him, he said Patrick didn’t know how to take care of his body or study film or get in a routine, as Sutton mentioned. He was still learning.

Now, he’s a leader — a guy Azzanni points to and says “watch how Tim does it.”

“The biggest gain from my first year to now is just him being a pro. When he was here, he was just like these other young guys. He had not a clue,” Azzanni said. “He’s totally different now. He’s a true pro. His routine is spot on, he knows how to take care of his body, he knows how to study, he knows the game plan, he knows the questions to ask — those things come with experience.”

Patrick is sure to get paid this offseason as an unrestricted free agent. Right now, he’s a bargain at $3.384 million this season. The Broncos will definitely attempt to keep him depending on his price and a possible extension for Sutton, but Patrick will also have plenty of suitors elsewhere.

In the meantime, Patrick’s role will any increase with the Broncos this season due to the Broncos’ injuries at receiver. But he’s no stranger to opportunities presenting themselves, whether it be in El Cajon, Cali., at Grossmont College, or in Denver with the Broncos.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the kid,” Azzanni said. “He’s turned himself in from a player to a pro. And you’re reaping the benefits now.”