Jimmy Morrissey is used to overcoming being the overlooked.
He's proven it several times over after joining Pitt's football program as a walk-on and redshirting in 2016. He became the Panthers' starting center in 2017, starting all four of his seasons at Pitt. He would earn First-Team All-ACC honors as the conference's best center in 2019 and 2020, and win the 2020 Burlsworth Trophy for most outstanding NCAA players who began their career as a walk-on.
Now, Morrissey is ready to prove those who overlooked him all over again. He told me how his experience as a walk-on motivates him in his regular workouts as he prepares for the NFL Draft.
"It just strengthens my mindset," Morrissey said when I asked about how he looks back on starting as a walk-on. "It makes me mentally tougher. That's why I'm forever grateful to be a walk-on. I'll always have that chip on my shoulder with whatever I do in life. I always have that voice in my head that I have to prove to myself and other people that I belong. I also want to prove it to my parents, who think I'm the greatest thing in the world, and I want to fulfill their belief in me. It really comes down to myself. When people tell me I can't do something, that doesn't affect me because deep down I know I can and I continue to prove them wrong."
Morrissey is back at the beginning of a new journey as he waits to see where he's picked in the NFL Draft. He's not projected to go in the early rounds with a strong class of centers led by Oklahoma's Creed Humphrey, Alabama's Landon Dickerson, Wisconsin-Whitewater's Quinn Meinerz, and Ohio State's Josh Meyers.
"No I'm not," Morrissey said when asked after his March 13 pro day if he's worried about being picked late. "I told my agent, Jason, I don't want to hear it. Whether I'm drafted in the first round or the seventh round it's not going change the way I prepare for the upcoming season."
Morrissey isn't one of the higher ranked prospects this season because he's not a pure mauler. At 6-foot-3, 303 lbs., he's one of the smaller centers in this class and neither his 26 bench press reps nor his 105-inch broad jump stood out ranking him no higher than 19th among this year's linemen in either event.
But where Morrissey did stand out with his pro day was in his agility drills. His 7.39 seconds on the 3-cone drill was seventh-best among offensive linemen and his 4.47 time in the shuttle was fourth-best among the group.
Combine that agility with impressive footwork and the constant leadership and awareness Morrissey brings on the field, and he makes for a prospect any NFL team should want on its depth chart.
"I think what most teams would appreciate to have is my leadership in the locker room," Morrissey said. "I continuously try to improve on myself and make others around me a lot better. My work ethic is part of that with the way I lead. People see what I do and that it's not all talk. I have a way to make people around me and myself improve consistently everyday."
Here's an example Morrissey's coordinating of the Panthers' offensive line as they took on a stunted blitz from Virginia Tech in the Panthers' senior day game in 2020. Virginia Tech blitzed a safety up the middle while slanting its defensive tackles to the left in order to clear space for the defensive back. Not only does Morrissey handle his man, but the rest of the Panthers' line looks comfortable in their reads as well:
The Panthers allowed 26 sacks last season, sixth-fewest in the ACC. But six of those sacks came while relying on inexperienced backup quarterbacks while quarterback Kenny Pickett missed two games due to injury.
Morrissey is also a consistent contributor in the run game, often working to change the line of scrimmage, get to the second level on a linebacker, or seal off his man to open a lane. Here's a play where he did the latter, where he simply established leverage to turn the shoulder of his man to open up A-gap for a touchdown run by Vincent Davis:
Finding different ways to win is a hallmark trait of Morrissey's NCAA career.
That's what a player often has to do when they're not the biggest or boasts the most strength of overlooked linemen like Morrissey. It's also why the focus of his offseason training before the NFL Draft has looked to further his craft with different moves rather than purely focusing on further bulking up to increase his strength.
"I'm working on techniques, recognizing coverages faster and so many things every day," Morrissey said. "I really want to take this next step as an NFL center. That's the thing about football is that until I hang up my cleats I know there's something to work on."
It's that mentality that NFL coaches and scouts keep inquiring about when talking to Morrissey.
"I think it's come up in every single interview with a coach or scout," Morrissey said. "It's a part of who I am and that chip on my shoulder is still there. It speaks to what kind of player I am, too. I have a fighter's mentality and I'm extremely tough to kill. Being a walk-on and turning into a four-year starter comes up frequently and I reiterate how lucky I am with the opportunity the university of Pittsburgh gave me."
Being a team captain who regularly says the right thing when talking to the media comes naturally to Morrissey after being a leader on the Panthers for several seasons. It's also why there were questions if Morrissey would use the NCAA eligibility waiver due to the pandemic and return for a fifth season as Pitt's starting center. Those questions got louder when his best friend and senior quarterback, Pickett, announced he would use the waiver and play for Pitt in 2021.
"I did have a couple people hit me up," Morrissey said. "But my time at Pitt was done. I had a fantastic experience. I love the university of Pittsburgh, that whole program, coach (Pat) Narduzzi, coach (Dave) Borbely and everybody involved. Kenny is one of my best friends and he did what was best for him. Personally I'm doing what's best for myself. I don't regret anything and I'll be a Pitt man until the day I die. Proud to wear the blue and gold, and now I'll be their biggest fan watching on Saturdays."
Before Morrissey could even begin his NFL journey with a new team, he had to prove himself after being overlooked yet again. This time came in the 2021 Senior Bowl, when he didn't receive an invite until the day before the game, but still showed up and showed out.
"Once it got to Thursday I gave up hope," Morrissey said. "But Friday I got back to my place after a workout and my agent called me. He sad, 'hey I've got Jim Nagy on the other line,' and patched him through. Jim told me, "hey we had some injuries on the line. Sorry we weren't able to get you out her earlier, but we'd love for you to come play for us tomorrow in the game.' He called me at 11:30 a.m., asked me if I could be down there from Pensacola. So I went to Mobile in an hour and a half, and by one o'clock I was getting COVID tested."
After those 90 minutes of driving, Morrissey waited another two and a half hours for his COVID-19 testing to come back negative and he could join his coaches and teammates less than 24 hours before the game.
"As I got free they just finished up all their meetings," Morrissey remembered. "I got to introduce myself to coach (Tony Sparano) and coach (Brandon Meyer). Coach Sparano spent about 45 minutes with me giving me a quick crash course on the offense. I took the playbook up to my room with a to-go dinner, studied it all night. Woke up the next day, taped my ankles and went through a walkthrough."
"So immediately I think, 'oh geez, I just drove down here for nothing. I might get a series.' But then he told me that in the second quarter I was playing left guard, third quarter I went to right guard, and then play center in the fourth. Then I thought, 'I'm playing the last three quarters? This is awesome.' But then I realized I never played left guard in my life. So during warmups I just took my center position, got myself off the ball a little and staggered my left foot and I realized it's the same thing."
Morrissey looked smooth playing each of the three interior offensive line positions for the rest of the game. But what helped was a friendly ice breaker with an old teammate on his first snap, with both of them playing in unfamiliar positions.
"It was nice, because the first person I went against was Rashad Weaver," Morrissey said. "And I know he's not a 3-technique and he knows I'm not a guard. So we were both doing something new out there. Weaver said something to me, but I just gave him a head nod because I had to get my pads set after standing on the sideline the whole first quarter. I just thought, 'let me get a couple plays in and then I'll start talking trash.' Then as the game went on, (Patrick Jones), Weaver, and I were all exchanging words. That's a great memory."
Outside of playing former teammates like Jones and Weaver, Morrissey depended on himself to get settled in on the game and make the right plays to impress Panthers' and Dolphins' coaching staffs that were running the Senior Bowl.
"I had to keep my head in the situation and be where my feet were," Morrissey said. "I just took it play by play. Jamie Newman and Kellen Mond would bring the plays in, I would process the play and know my job. I took every play as its own and process it at that time. I was fortunate to play in an offense like Pitt where our run game is very pro-style. It was similar enough to Carolina, so I just had to adjust to the terms."
One thing Morrissey didn't have to adjust was his attitude, as he's always been an encouraging and supportive teammate. All season long as I covered Pitt, I noticed Morrissey was often the first offensive teammate to greet whoever scored a touchdown for the Panthers in the end zone. It always seemed like a cool way to show extra effort to celebrate a teammate and further show how to be a leader on the team.
And there he was doing that same thing in the Senior Bowl for teammates he had just met less than 24 hours ago, first for Clemson's Amari Rodgers and again for Tennessee's Josh Palmer. Here's Palmer's touchdown where you can see Morrissey go from being in protection to the first person in the back of the end zone:
That's something that's been engrained in his brain since high school.
"I always want to cover the ball," Morrissey said. "Whenever the ball is downfield you want to run to it just in case something happens. It really became a habit in high school who made us run sprints if we messed up. And one of the things we ran for was if we weren't around the ball carrier. We would make it a competition on my high school line to be there and be the first guy to help our guy up after he's tackled. So however far that pass or that run is, I'm going to be right there, help them up and be in the game."
When looking at college players, NFL coaches and scouts are looking to avoid blemishes in players' character that might lead to a disruptive force in their locker room. But when a player can be a teammate, leader and contributor the way Morrissey showed he could be with the limited opportunities afforded to him, he's home run in the character department.
That's why any team who gets Morrissey this season could be getting a steal. He's shown in the Senior Bowl that he can quickly adapt to the other interior positions. But teams won't overlook his history of being passed over and consistently using it as a chip on his shoulder.
Some players don't react well to being overlooked having felt disrespected or discouraged for not having their work recognized. That's not Morrissey, as evidenced by the career at Pitt he made for himself and his immediate turnaround to play three quarters at three different positions in the Senior Bowl.
We'll see which NFL roster he gets to make his first NFL impression with later this month during the NFL Draft.
