(On if he’s heard from Rams P Johnny Hekker)
“No, I haven’t, but I’m anxious to. It’ll be nice to be teammates with him again.”
(On what kind of teammate Hekker was)
“No, he’s a great, great guy. I’m sure he’s just the same as he is in St. Louis. Great guy. I think I actually lived with him briefly over one of the summers so it’ll be exciting to be back with him.”
(On why he was wearing a Rams shirt on TV at his home)
“No, honestly I got it at the combine and I guess I was just lucky. It was the only NFL team shirt I have so it must have been quite a coincidence.”
(On no other teams giving him a shirt)
“Nope, but this is the only one I need now.”
(On living with Hekker in college)
“I think over one summer. It was just briefly. Johnny’s a good friend of mine over the years and a really, really good dude and obviously a really good punter. It’ll be fun to be back with him on the same team.”
(On vaguely remembering rooming with Hekker)
“He was a little bit older than me. I was just a young guy then.”
(On if he had a formal visit with the Rams at the combine)
“I did. I had a formal interview with St. Louis at the combine. I know leaving it I felt really, really good about it. I thought I had a really good meeting with them. It’s the kind of thing when you leave the combine you kind of reflect on everything and I felt really good about my meeting with them, for sure.”
(On his private workout with the Rams)
“Yes, Coach (Jeff) Fisher and (Offensive Coordinator) Coach (Frank) Cignetti and (Quarterbacks) Coach (Chris) Weinke, (General Manager) Mr. (Les) Snead, they all came out to work me out at Oregon State. I guess that would have been about two weeks ago. I felt really good then, too. I know I thought I threw the ball really well. I had the opportunity to meet with them and kind of go over some football stuff in the classroom. I felt great about all of it. It was one of those things where at the combine and then at my workout I really felt like I put my best foot forward. Honestly, it feels really good now to see it come to fruition with the Rams.”
(On what feedback he’s gotten from teams around the league throughout the process)
“It was all very positive, to be honest with you. To go to the Senior Bowl and perform well and get a lot of positive feedback and then go to the combine and feel good about how I threw and feel really good about the meetings and stuff, then have a good pro day workout, it was all really positive. I know one thing that I really tried to focus on after the end of my season was really sharpening up my footwork and really cleaning that stuff up and I felt like I was able to kind of show that at the Senior Bowl and at the combine and at my pro day. A lot of it was really positive feedback about how they’d seen I made improvements in those areas.”
(On if improved footwork helped with his release time)
Yeah, I definitely think so. I think footwork is something that can help a lot of areas of your game. Obviously, quickening my release is something that I had been wanting to do. I think focusing on my footwork and always throwing from the same base in the pocket can really speed up my delivery and get the ball out very fast.”
(On who he worked with on his technique)
“I worked with Jordan Palmer. He was my quarterback coach during the pre-draft (period).”
(On where the workouts took place)
“I trained before the draft in Carlsbad, Calif., near San Diego.”
(On being correctly projected by the advisory board as a third-round pick after his junior season)
“Yeah, I guess that thing must be pretty accurate. Honestly, I feel like I’m over my senior year. Although our team didn’t reach the goal we had set for ourselves, I feel like I really made improvements as a player. Obviously, the team goals come first, so there’s a certain degree of disappointment there, but at the same time, looking back, I know that I’m a far better quarterback now than I was a year ago.”
(On the benefit of having collegiate experience playing in a pro-style offense)
“I think it will help. In my meeting with St. Louis when they worked me out, they gave me some information on their offense. Granted, I’m sure it was a fraction of what we’ll get very soon in terms of the playbook, but there were a ton of similarities in terms of formations, terminology, the sorts of concepts and patterns and that sort of thing. So to describe it shortly, it feels like nothing is totally brand new for me in terms of what I experienced briefly in my workout with the Rams.”
