How Chiefs’ Mitch Morse and MU’s Derek Dooley prepared Paul Adams for the NFL Combine

As Paul Adams goes through the motions at the NFL Combine this week, he had a lot of people to thank while he met with reporters on Thursday.

Namely Chiefs center and pending free agent Mitch Morse.

A fellow Missouri alum and offensive lineman, Morse has been critical for Adams as he meets with teams and prepares for drills that will help determine where he goes in April’s NFL Draft.

Adams has also heard from Missouri alums such as Evan Boehm and Connor McGovern to wish him well, but Morse also helped the 6-foot-6 tackle find an agent. Adams ended up signing with Billy Conaty of Eastern Athletic Services, the same agent as Morse.

“He just said take it all in, you only do this one time,” Adams said of Morse’s advice.

Through his first two days at the combine, Adams said he’s met with almost every NFL team, with the Chiefs being one of the few exceptions. The Chiefs did meet with him at the East-West Shrine Game in January.

The Tennessee Titans, Adams’ hometown team, also met with him, which brought back memories for the Franklin, Tenn. native. Adams’ first football game game a four-year-old was the Music City Miracle.

“For a while, that’s all I knew about football,” Adams said of the game.

Throughout his meetings with teams, Adams said MU offensive coordinator Derek Dooley’s influence was felt as he was asked to talk offense and draw up plays.

Missouri’s old offense under Josh Heupel was an air-raid hybrid with spread concepts that only required the Tigers’ linemen to block for short stints. Dooley’s pro-style concepts and vernacular helped Adams hold his own in the meeting rooms at the combine, which he said wouldn’t have been the case had he left school early.

“I would have been completely lost last year,” Adams said.

Adams did just 16 repetitions on the bench press Thursday but remained optimistic going in Friday’s drills, such as the 40-yard dash, three-cone drill and five-ten-five.

He’s aiming for a 40 time under 5.1 seconds, a 4.4-second five-ten-five and around 7.5-seconds in the three-cone drill.

Teams haven’t told Adams what rounds he might go in, nor has he asked.

After Missouri’s loss to Oklahoma State in the Liberty Bowl, Adams has been out in California training for the combine at Exos in San Diego. Former Missouri tight end and Blue Springs South graduate Kendall Blanton also trained with Adams out there. The two roomed together for four years at Missouri.

Adams enjoyed his time in California but thought it rained a lot more than he was expecting.

“There’s a song that says it never rains in Southern California,” Adams said. “I got lied to.”