Wisconsin football: Tanner Mordecai goes undrafted at NFL draft, signs with 49ers

MADISON – The San Francisco 49ers signed Wisconsin quarterback Tanner Mordecai as an undrafted free agent following 2024 NFL draft Saturday.

Mordecai, from Waco, Texas, played just one season at UW after spending three seasons at Oklahoma and two at SMU.

Here is everything you need to know about Mordecai.

Mordecai played in a total of 12 games in three seasons at Oklahoma. He completed 50 of 70 attempts for 639 yards, with four touchdowns and one interception. He passed for 7,152 yards, with 72 touchdowns and only 22 interceptions, in two seasons at SMU.

Mordecai missed 3 ½ games at UW (broken right hand) and finished with 2,066 passing yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions. He also rushed for 304 yards and four touchdowns.

What kind of player was Tanner Mordecai at UW?

Mordecai was UW’s No. 1 quarterback from Day 1 of spring ball and was expected to help lead the Badgers to the Big Ten West Division title.

The Badgers didn’t come close to that goal for myriad reasons.

Mordecai found Big Ten defenses more formidable than those in the American Athletic Conference, he missed 3 ½ games because of a broken right hand and offensive coordinator Phil Longo was slow to identify how to best use UW’s best weapons in his scheme.

Mordecai suffered the injury late in the first half of UW’s 15-6 loss to visiting Iowa. He missed the next three games – a victory over Illinois and losses to Ohio State and Indiana – before returning to the starting lineup on Nov. 11 against visiting Northwestern.

The Badgers were thoroughly outplayed in a 24-10 loss to the Wildcats, but Mordecai helped lead UW to victories over Nebraska and Minnesota to close out the regular season.

Those victories sent UW to the ReliaQuest Bowl against LSU.

What were Mordecai’s best moments at UW?

Mordecai gave all he had in his final game at UW. He completed 27 of 40 passes for a season-high 378 yards, with three touchdowns, in the Badgers’ 35-31 loss to LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

He helped UW twice build 14-point leads against the Tigers but his final series ended with three consecutive sacks after the Badgers faced second and 2 at the Tigers’ 19.

“I don’t think you can say enough about that kid,” head coach Luke Fickell said. “He played (with) a broken hand after 3 ½ weeks, or four weeks…And there was never a hesitation of whether he was going to play in this game.”

Mordecai turned out to be a terrific leader in his lone season in Madison and his running ability proved valuable, particularly in victories over Nebraska and Minnesota.

Mordecai completed a combined 32 of 50 passes for 305 yards and three touchdowns and rushed 18 times for 120 yards (6.7 yards per carry) in the victories.

“Those two games were some of the most fun football games I’ve ever played in my life,” he said. “I’ll always remember those.”

How did Tanner Mordecai fare at UW’s pro day?

Mordecai wasn’t invited to the NFL Combine but performed well at UW’s pro day in March.

He had the No. 2 time in the 40-yard dash (4.46 seconds) and No. 2 vertical jump (36 ½ inches) and tied for the No. 2 mark in the broad jump (9 feet 11 inches).

Mordecai got plenty of opportunities to throw the ball for scouts and showed he could make most of the throws required by NFL quarterbacks.

“A lot of them are skeptical about that because of where it was broken,” he said of the hand injury he suffered against Iowa, “but I think (I) proved it’s good to go.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tanner Mordecai signed by San Francisco 49ers as undrafted free agent