National Football League

Newton shows potential at pro day

Published Mar. 8, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton had his pro day workout Tuesday on campus inside Jordan-Hare Stadium.

During the throwing session, orchestrated by his personal quarterback coach George Whitfield Jr., Newton made a variety of throws.

He was asked to make a variety of passes on three-, five-, and seven-step drops. Whitfield had him make several NFL-type throws (deep comebacks, dig routes, angle routes, “7” and “9” routes, for example) so the personnel evaluators in attendance could get a better idea of where he is in his progression as a quarterback. And he made several throws on the run, which he wasn’t asked to do during last month’s NFL Scouting Combine.

During the session, he completed 50 of 60 passes. While three of those incompletions were dropped passes, at least five or six passes which were caught were a bit off target.

But in this environment, you could see clearly how his passes jumped out of his hands. No one ever could doubt his arm strength. He did a nice job of driving the ball off his back foot, which is what you’ll see on tape.

And despite the criticism he received for running the ball too much this past season at Auburn, he can make every throw. That shouldn’t be a problem at the next level.

What Newton has to do is put better touch on the ball. Because he’s more of a thrower at this point than a passer, Newton still overthrows too much. That’s something that’s easily correctable.

But what personnel evaluators still struggle with is how steep of a learning curve he’ll have at the next level, because he only had one season starting at the Division I level. Playing in a spread-option offense makes his learning curve steeper than other top quarterbacks available in this year’s draft.