Malik Cunningham passed for 2,913 yards and 30 touchdowns in his senior season at Park Crossing High School, then had 9,660 passing yards and 70 touchdown passes during his college career at Louisville. But Cunningham is trying to make it in the NFL by catching passes instead of throwing them.

Signed as a rookie free agent by the New England Patriots after the NFL Draft in April, Cunningham has worked as a wide receiver in the Patriots’ offseason program, which concludes this week with mandatory minicamp.

MORE NFL:

· JONAH WILLIAMS ON BOARD WITH BENGALS’ PLANS FOR POSITION SWITCH

· PATRIOTS QB MAC JONES ENJOYING BILL O’BRIEN’S ‘TOOLBOX’

· HALL OF FAMER RAY LEWIS FIRES UP ROOKIE LINEBACKER WILL ANDERSON JR.

“It’s definitely different,” Cunningham said on Monday. “But the quarterback’s definitely still in me, so it’s kind of learning as we go. Just trying to get better each and every day, and that’s been the task. Trying to focus on the details at the receiver standpoint — alignment, assignment and knowing what to do. …

“It’s going good. But there are some days when I’m like, ‘Man, I’m overwhelmed.’ But just got to take a deep breath, relax and just keep chipping away and trying to get better each and every game.”

At the Reese’s Senior Bowl on Feb. 4 in Mobile, Cunningham completed 3-of-5 passes for 49 yards with no touchdowns and one interception, threw a successful 2-point conversion pass and ran five times for 22 yards and one touchdown. He directed a 10-play, 75-yard drive capped by his 1-yard TD run for the National team in a 27-10 over the American squad.

At the NFL Scouting Combine on March 4 in Indianapolis, Cunningham ran the 40-yard dash in 4.53 seconds, the third-fastest time among the quarterbacks.

Even though he did not get drafted, Cunningham had pre-draft workouts with NFL teams, including the Patriots, who were the only organization to work out the quarterback as a receiver.

“I’ve never ran a route ever in my life,” Cunningham said about his experience before coming to the Patriots. “… I’m doing this off raw athleticism.”

New England offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien conducted Cunningham’s workout. O’Brien returned to the Patriots this offseason after working as Alabama’s offensive coordinator the past two seasons. O’Brien had worked on coach Bill Belichick’s staff with the Patriots from 2007 through 2011.

The final three seasons of O’Brien’s first stint with New England were the first three seasons of Julian Edelman’s 12 seasons with the Patriots. Edelman had 620 receptions for 6,822 yards and 36 touchdowns in 137 regular-season games and 118 receptions for 1,442 yards and five touchdowns in 19 postseason games, including three Super Bowl victories, as a wide receiver with New England. Edelman also returned four punts for touchdowns, the most in franchise history.

But Edelman did not play wide receiver in college. He had been a quarterback at Bowling Green.

Cunningham said “the culture and the Julian Edelman stories” prompted him to pursue the position change with New England.

“Just seeing the success he had at receiver, it just goes to show that it can be done,” Cunningham said.

Although he didn’t catch passes, Cunningham did more with the football in his hands than pass it in high school and college. He ran for 1,015 yards and 19 touchdowns as a senior at Park Crossing and 3,179 yards and 50 touchdowns at Louisville.

Cunningham has a closer-to-home example of a player shifting from quarterback to another position and making it in the NFL. His successor as quarterback for Park Crossing, Cam Taylor-Britt, transitioned to the secondary at Nebraska and started nine regular-season and three playoff games at cornerback for the Cincinnati Bengals as a rookie last season.

Cunningham remains listed as a quarterback on the Patriots’ roster, but he’s really among the team’s 11 wide receivers. Four are rookies.

“They’re all doing a great job, the young guys, just trying to learn from everybody,” New England quarterback Mac Jones said about the Patriots’ rookie wide receivers on Monday. “I think they all have potential and got to be consistent. I always tell them, ‘Just play fast. Don’t think too much. Just go out there and play.’ And they’ve all played really well in college, and they’re all very versatile, so I’ve been really happy with the progress some of those guys have made.”

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.