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Josh McCown
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Editor's note: This is the first in a series of journal entries written by Sam Houston
State QB Josh McCown, who is preparing for the upcoming NFL draft on April 20-21. In Part
1, McCown discusses the events leading up to and during the Senior Bowl, where he was
selected to replace an injured Joey Harrington.
I am Josh McCown, a prospect for the upcoming NFL draft on April 20th. Pro Football
Weekly has asked me to provide a journal on the events leading up to the draft.
First of all, I would like to thank God for blessing me with the ability to be in this
situation.
The process started for me directly after my college season ended. My school, Sam
Houston State, lost to the eventual Division I-AA champion, Montana, in the semifinals.
Soon after, I was posed with the decision of selecting an agent. About 15 agents contacted
me, with eight or nine agents calling frequently. I narrowed it down to three before
choosing Mike McCartney of Priority Sports out of Chicago.
We had a lot of similar interests, and it felt right. I knew he had experience in the
league as a scout and pro personnel director. I knew he was a good talent evaluator and
would shoot it to me straight. He wasn’t one of those agents who have never played
ball or had never been around the sport before in his life. I knew he was going to help me
get where I wanted to be and wasn’t going to sugarcoat it.
The next step was to start preparing for the all-star games and Indianapolis Combine to
showcase my talents to NFL scouts and coaches.
Priority Sports does a great job preparing their clients for all phases of the NFL
draft. That was what largely sold me on their services. They send their clients to train
with Kurt Hester, a strength and speed specialist from the New Orleans area. I made the
decision to relocate immediately because I wanted to be at my best for the all-star game
and Combine.
Priority Sports also brought in a quarterbacks coach, Nelson Stokley, to work with me.
Nelson is a retired head college football coach who served as Clemson’s offensive
coordinator for six seasons, including its national championship in 1981. He was also a
former quarterback, and his son Brandon is a wide receiver for the Ravens. So I was very
excited about the chance to learn from him, and knew it was essential for me to train as
soon as possible because most guys take time off after the season.
Working out was tough because it essentially was an all-day event from 8 a.m. until 8
p.m., with just a couple of two-hour breaks in between. Kurt Hester really does a great
job preparing guys for all the different components of draft preparation, while Coach
Stokley worked with me on the fundamentals of playing quarterback. I feel really fortunate
to have trained under them and give them a lot of credit for where I am today. I
can’t imagine being more prepared than I was.
Coach Stokley really helped me with shifting my weight on throws. He put me through
different drills to improve my footwork, such as jump-roping in ways that force you to
shift your weight. He also had me over-exaggerate stepping with my left foot because I
wasn’t shifting all of my weight into my throws. Then we worked on backing it in, and
it really helped me keep my weight on my left side when I throw.
We ran a lot of the shotgun at Sam Houston too, so I hadn’t been accustomed to
doing a lot of five-step drops. I’ve never done any seven-step drops in any offense,
so that was something Nelson definitely helped me prepare for. We were asked to perform
seven-step drops at the Senior Bowl. If it had not been for working with him, I would have
been totally in the dark.
The Senior Bowl week was a great experience. It was kind of crazy at first because, not
only am I a player, but I am also a fan. Seeing the big-name players that had
received so much attention, as well as the NFL coaching staffs, was really cool to
me. The testing process at these games is interesting. It was wild how many mental
aptitude tests they ask players to take.
They would ask questions, such as, "If you found a wallet with money in it, would
you return it?" In the Giants’ test, which is known for its great length, they
will ask you that and then they’ll reword it and ask you the same question about 20
questions later. In the Giants’ test, there were about 50 short-answer questions and
432 multiple-choice questions, so it took at least two hours to get through it all. Once
you finish the testing, you’re about as tired as if you had gone through an actual
practice.
I was really excited when I found out that I was placed on the North squad, which was
coached by the staff of the Seattle Seahawks. Growing up, I always said I wanted to play
for Mike Holmgren. I really learned a lot during the week from him and Jim Zorn, the
Seahawks’ quarterback coach. The toughest thing was trying to learn the offense
in a week. Fortunately, my roommate was Illinois QB Kurt Kittner, who ran a similar type
of offense in college and was able to answer any questions. Kurt is a really cool
guy, and I enjoyed hanging out with him the whole week.
The practices were fun because there was such a huge audience on the field, including
most NFL head coaches and scouts. Even though I knew how important the practices were, I
really wanted to just improve and not put too much pressure on myself. Most of the
practices, I felt like I threw the ball well, though I had one drill where I really
struggled, throwing fades in the corner of the endzone. For some reason, I kept missing
what I consider a relatively easy throw. Following the drill, I really wanted to show all
the evaluators my mental toughness and that I could bounce back from adversity.
My main thrust in the game was to show the scouts and coaches that I belong in the
NFL. I figured that I would be third in the three-quarterback rotation, so I thought
I probably wouldn’t get to play much. I just really wanted to stay focused on
the sideline and be ready when my chance came. It finally came right before half,
with less than a minute to play. I was afraid they were going to ask me to kneel down and
waste a series, but instead, we came out aggressively trying to score. I completed a
couple of passes, and we quickly got the ball in scoring range for Michigan PK Hayden
Epstein to nail a field goal. We were down at half, and I knew it was just an all-star
game, but I really wanted to win and was trying to get everybody going because my last two
series were coming up.
The next series, we had a long drive, and I finished it with a touchdown run. I really
felt like I showed my overall ability in that drive. I was able to patiently sit in
the pocket as a passer and make good decisions, as well as make athletic plays with my
feet. The next drive ended short when a ball was tipped up by a receiver and
intercepted. I was done playing, but every minute I was on the field, it was fun.
Looking back, the Senior Bowl was a terrific experience for me. It gave me some needed
exposure, and I went back to New Orleans knowing what I needed to fine-tune for the
Indianapolis Combine, which was only a month away.
Editor's note: McCown shot up on many teams' draft boards after a jaw-dropping
performance at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. In fact, Pro Football Weekly
draft analyst Joel Buchsbaum labeled McCown a "sleeper" in the pre-draft issue
of PFW. The blond-haired, blue-eyed quarterback will detail his Combine experience in Part
2, after returning from a visit to New York this weekend, where he will visit the Giants
and Jets.
Feature story on McCown
Q&A with McCown
Buchsbaum's scouting
report on McCown |
