4 things to know about Patriots sixth-round pick Marcellas Dial

He was a junior college player.

Dial’s path to the NFL wasn’t the most conventional route.

The South Carolina native didn’t have the best grades at the start of high school before shifting his focus on his classes later on. To help progress toward his goal of playing Division I football, Dial moved into the home of one of his high school teammates, becoming more committed to his academics.

However, that wasn’t enough to catch the attention of Division I programs. Dial was looked over as a high school commit, being ranked a zero-star recruit.

So, Dial committed to Georgia Military College, a junior college in Milledgeville, Georgia. He participated in morning formations, wearing his military uniform.

Dial remained at Georgia Military College for two years, recording two interceptions in the one season he played there as the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was ranked as one of the top junior college cornerback recruits following the 2020 season, heading back to his home state to play for the school he rooted for as a kid.

He’s dealt with some adversity.

In addition to having to play at the junior college level to make a Division I squad, Dial has also dealt with some obstacles in his personal life. Dial’s father, Marcellas Sr., passed away in 2021 at 42 following a long battle with kidney and liver disease.

Despite the hardships Dial has gone through, he didn’t miss a game over his three-year tenure at South Carolina. He became a regular starter in the 2022 season, recording three interceptions that year, and retained his starting spot in 2023.

South Carolina coaches aptly named Dial its recipient for the Overcoming Adversity Award at the end of the 2023 season.

“I’ve been an underdog my whole life,” Dial told reporters on Saturday. “I’ve been having to fight this uphill battle all my life. So, me overcoming adversity, that’s something I’ve been doing my whole life. So, it’s nothing new, you know? Then, I think they presented it to me because of my journey getting there.

“My journey throughout my three years there, I was in the rotation and everything. I never once was thinking about getting in the portal, never once complaining or anything. I just kept my head down, kept working, didn’t rebel against the coaches or anything, so I just overcame a lot of adversity like I have my whole life, you know?”

He’s been lauded for his ability to play the ball.

While Dial is a late-round pick, draft evaluators really liked the corner’s ball skills. He didn’t have any interceptions in 2023 after recording a few in 2022, but he had 10 pass breakups last season, which was the fourth-most in the SEC.

“Dial has the ball skills and burst that give him a chance to earn an NFL role, but his undisciplined spacing in coverage must improve to match up with NFL receivers,” Brugler wrote in “The Beast.” “He could be an option for zone schemes.”

Dial seemed to have a similar assessment of himself.

“I’m a sticky corner in coverage,” Dial told reporters. “I’m able to run, compete, and play with any receiver, any body type. I’m very good at attacking whenever the ball is in the air. I can make plays on the ball. I know there’s bits and parts to my game to get better at, but that’s where I’m going to come in, work and get better.”

He had a unique introduction to his first new Patriots teammate.

Dial isn’t the first cornerback from South Carolina to join the Patriots in recent years. Stephon Gilmore enjoyed a four-year stint in New England, winning Defensive Player of the Year in 2019.

Despite the connection, Dial hasn’t met Gilmore yet, saying he’s sure they will at some point in the future. But he got to meet one of his new teammates during his visit with the Patriots, though it was outside of the team’s facilities.

“I know there’s one receiver that we had met in a Hibachi restaurant,” Dial said when asked if he had any connections on the team. “I forget his name …Kendrick?”

When Dial remembered it was Kendrick Bourne, he recalled the story of meeting the Patriots receiver at Saga at Patriot Place.

“We had met in a Hibachi restaurant, and we had just kicked it off right off the bat,” Dial said. “It was kind of weird because I didn’t know him, he didn’t know me, but we just kind of connected to each other and started talking about everything. He was telling me his journey and everything, telling me I was on the right track and everything, and it’s just so crazy that I’m here now.

“It’s so crazy that I ended up here; it’s so crazy. It’s crazy that he’s my teammate now.”

Dial called his visit to New England one of his best visits. It turns out, the Patriots had the same view of the visit.

“It caught me by surprise when they told me I was their first defensive player,” Dial said. “That’s an honor to be their first defensive player off the board. So, I mean, I kind of was thinking, but I didn’t want to speak on it too soon. It’s something I really felt deep in my heart that I made happen just by my first impression I sent them.”