Said ex-NFL head coach Mike Holmgren, “Anybody who’s asked me, I’ve told them, ‘Compete in the combine. Don’t worry about it.’ That message hasn’t gotten across to enough of them, I don’t think. I just think they need to go out there and compete. That’s part of the deal. (You want to) watch them grit their teeth after they throw a bad one or throw one where they couldn’t gauge a receiver, and see what they do with the next one. I think they do themselves a disservice by not teeing it up here.”
“From my perspective, it’s all about the competition. It’s never going to get any better as far as the type of conditions you’re under. They want to see what you have when you’re standing on the same field next to your competition. You get an apples-to-apples comparison that way. In talking to scouts and coaches, that apples-to-apples competition is important to them. The key word out of the whole combine is compete. They want to see players who aren’t afraid to compete.”