McSorley has much to prove at combine
Ex-Lions QB measures in at 6 feet, 202 pounds
INDIANAPOLIS – Saturday is quarterback day at the NFL scouting combine, and Penn State’s Trace McSorley has a lot to prove.
Like all of his 300-plus peers who have assembled in Indianapolis this week to be poked, prodded, tested and examined every which way, he has a very good idea of his strengths and weaknesses — or at least the perception of them.
He knows he won’t be able to sway everyone with a good showing on the turf at Lucas Oil Stadium. He’ll settle for simply putting on videotape what he knows, which is what he’s been telling teams in interviews.
“I’m telling them they’ll be getting a guy who is going to come in every day and give you everything you can get out of him,” McSorley said. “He’s going to work hard every single day. Nobody’s going to outwork me, day in and day out. I’m going to be a guy coaches and teammates can trust and respect, so that when I do get my opportunity, I’m going to be a guy they know is going to give them an opportunity to win.
“I have a refusal-to-quit attitude, and that’s how I’m going to be at the next level. They’re going to have to drag me off the field to not have me be in there.”
Furthermore, he believes he will deliver the necessary measurables too.
“The intangibles are a big part of who I am,” McSorley admitted. “But I’m a football player and I’m an athlete and this is a chance for me to go out there
and show them I can make all the throws and that I can run really well. People tend to overlook my physical attributes because of the other stuff. I want to show them physically what I can do out on the field tomorrow.”
McSorley checked in at 6-0, 202, which is relatively tiny for a pro quarterback but not as uncommon as it used to be before the likes of Drew Brees and Russell Wilson won Super Bowls and Baker Mayfield came on the scene.
“Those kinds of guys are making people kind of step back and realize that you don’t need to be the prototypical, 6-foot-4, 220-pound guy back there,” McSorley said. “Quarterbacks are now being looked at in different lights.
“[Lack of height] hasn’t been anything that’s been brought up with me this week, meeting with teams or coaches, scouts, anything like that. But it’s definitely now something that’s being looked at in a different light.”
Just because McSorley didn’t operate under center at Penn State, it doesn’t mean he’s not ready for the pro game.
“I don’t really feel that there will be any adjustment,” he said. “I was able to get some [reps] at the Senior Bowl, working under center, working out of a huddle, and it felt really comfortable doing that.
“Our system, although it’s shotgun and it’s no-huddle, there’s a lot [of responsibility] on our quarterback from a protection standpoint, getting everything protected up, making sure we’re good there. A lot of it falls under the quarterback.”
McSorley blames only himself for his significant drop in production as a senior.
After completing 284 of 427 attempts (66.5 percent) for 3,570 yards and 28 TDs in 2017, he followed it up by going 192for-361 (53.2 percent) for 2,530 yards and 18 TDs this past season.
“It wasn’t going where we wanted to early on,” he said, “and I think that I started to tense up a little bit and started trying to press and make perfect throws. Going back over the film this past year, I was skipping guys at times in the progression. I was looking for the guy that was most open, not a guy like, ‘Get him the ball and let him be a playmaker.’
“So there were some things I could have done better this year. And our chemistry is something I think we could have improved on as well.”
McSorley’s accountability is matched by his enthusiasm to show what he knows.
“They’ve brought videos from other teams, they’ll have you draw up plays,” he said. “So that’s the type of stuff that I love. I love being on film, explaining our reads. I feel like I know our system incredibly well, like the back of my hand.”
Now all he needs to do is get teams around the NFL to know him the same way.