TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Benjamin Morrison burst into tears when he got the long-awaited call from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second round of the NFL draft last month.
“Thank you for believing in me,” Morrison told coach Todd Bowles in one of the most emotional videos of the three days.
A star cornerback at Notre Dame whose season ended in October following a hip injury, Morrison was still considered a first-round pick by many analysts, with some rating him as the No. 1 player at his position. But he had to wait until the 53rd pick to hear his name called.
Morrison explained his raw emotion Friday when the Buccaneers kicked off rookie camp.
“It was just the year that I had last year, going into the year, understanding I was one of the top corners, and then you get injured, and then you feel like you’re forgotten about, and there’s so many things behind closed doors that many people don’t know that I had to go through last year with just uncertainty of my hip, the combine process, all that stuff,” Morrison said. “So it honestly felt like a lot of people gave up on me. And, I’m still a kid in the day. I’m growing up. I still have to have those growing pains. So it was tough. But at the end of the day, I mean God doesn’t make mistakes. I landed at the right spot. It kind of validated this when I walked through the doors. This is the place I’m supposed to be at. My mom was like: ‘You’re on a mission. God sent you here for a reason and go attack it.'”
Morrison participated in positional drills on the field but sat out the team periods as he continues to recover from surgery.
Morrison’s dad, Darryl Morrison, played four seasons in the NFL as a defensive back after Washington selected him in the sixth round in 1993. He played with Bowles his rookie season so he gave his son input on his new coach.
“He was like, honestly, straight to the point, he’s matter of fact. And he’s just like what you got on the phone is what you’re going to get. He’s a good dude, great man, cares about his players and things like that,” Benjamin Morrison said about his dad’s thoughts on Bowles.
The four-time defending NFC South champion Buccaneers are counting on Morrison to bolster a secondary that finished fourth-worst in passing yards allowed in each of the past two seasons.
The 6-foot, 190-pound Morrison had six interceptions as a freshman in 2022 and three picks along with a team-high 10 pass breakups in 2023, when he was a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, which is given to the top defensive back in college football.
His experience playing for a high-profile college program should help him make a smooth transition to the next level.
“It’s a national stage every single week,” Morrison said about Notre Dame. “I opened up my first-ever game at 18 years old playing Ohio State. So for me, it’s just prepared me to go against the best. Look at the guys I’ve gone against in college, different body types who are excelling in the NFL at a high level. So for me, it gave me that wide variety of different receivers and then also just the man that Notre Dame kind of molded me to be. I went there a boy and came out a man, just through my coaching staff, the people around me, even my players. Having guys like Cam Hart, even Kyle Hamilton coming back to school, just seeing the way they operate, it’s inspiring for a young kid like me and I was like I wanna be like that one day.”
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