When did Patrick Surtain understand he wasn’t at Southern Miss anymore?

That was in 1998, during his first preseason home game as a rookie Dolphin, after they drafted him in the second round. Surtain was in ideal position to defend a pass play.
“Perfect coverage,” Surtain recalled. “Perfect everything. Guy caught the ball anyway. Touchdown. I was like, ’Man, that’s what the NFL is like.”’
Surtain didn’t start during his rookie season, playing behind veteran Terrell Buckley and second-year man Sam Madison, but he did appear in 16 games and intercept two passes. He got his first start in December 1999 against Indianapolis.
During the next few years, Surtain and Madison developed into one of the league’s best tandems. Now, more than a decade later, there’s excitement about two young Dolphins cornerbacks again — this time, two drafted in the same year. While Will Allen’s presence means that Vontae Davis and Sean Smith won’t both need to start in base packages, they are both expected to get plenty of action.
Surtain thinks that’s good.
“As a corner, I think it’s better to play right away,” he said. “Take your lumps.”
Madison might have gotten that opportunity, if not a knee scope that limited him in his first training camp and kept him behind Calvin Jackson.
He thinks he benefited from working in slowly.
“They are not going to have that luxury to watch the older guys perform like I did,” Madison said of Davis and Smith.
Madison acknowledged that the two rookies will face the burden of expectations. His advice? Just play the scheme.
“You’re going to have opportunity to make plays,” Madison said. “But sometimes those plays are not going to be there for you to make, you just have to maintain the defense.”