Most Confident Man at the Combine: Will Grier says he's the best QB prospect in last two years

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INDIANAPOLIS -- Will Grier stepped to the podium at the combine for his media availability period and wanted everyone there to know that he wasn't lacking for confidence. Based on some of the answers he gave in his nearly 20 minutes fielding questions, he might be the most confident man in town this year. 

If there were measurements for such a thing -- it is, after all, an event centered on measurements -- Grier would've broken the stopwatch, benched all the weight, and jumped right out of Lucas Oil Stadium.

"I'm not totally sure where people have me or anything like that," Grier said. "I'm a very confident person. I feel like I'm the best quarterback in this draft. I would've felt that way if I came out last year. I'm very confident in my abilities, and I think it's not just about my tape -- which is really good and I think it's the best tape that there is -- but it's also everything else that goes into playing quarterback that I take pride in."

Grier is an interesting prospect in that he lit up the Big 12 after transferring from Florida following a performance-enhancing drug suspension. He was second-team All-Big 12 last season hitting on 67 percent of his passes with 37 touchdowns and 3,864 yards. He measured in at the combine at almost 6-foot-3, 217 pounds, giving him enough size to fit the mold some might consider the prototype, and he seemed to have a knack for late-game heroics. 

Still, the conference in which he played is considered one that lends itself to inflated numbers, which could keep him out of the first-round conversation and knock him into the second or third. Grier made it clear, though, he feels he shouldn't be docked for that. 

LISTEN TO WILL GRIER IN THE LASTEST EPISODE OF "THE NEXT PATS PODCAST"

"I don't understand that," he said, his coif remaining perfectly intact. "I played in the SEC and played in the Big 12. Great defenses. Great offenses. Great players. Great coaches. [TCU head coach] Gary Patterson is really good at what he does. Iowa State plays a good scheme. People can form their own opinions about different things. Me, as a guy that's done it, I think there's a lot of talent in the Big 12. I think there's a lot of good football teams, and I played it. It's tough to play in the Big 12."

But, many would tell him, maybe it shouldn't have been. 

Evaluators here in Indy were hoping to see more from Grier at the Senior Bowl last month, where he'd have a chance to learn a pro-style system and see defensive players that were more NFL-ready on a position-by-position basis than he was used to seeing. 

His week of practice ended up being decidedly underwhelming, according to sources. But Grier, confident as he is, said he felt as though all went well in Mobile, Alabama. He went 4-for-8 for 61 yards through the air. 

"I've had a few teams talk to me about that," he said. "We've watched some film on it. I think, one, it's very base. It's not a whole really install that you would do, necessarily, in your first NFL camp. But it's kind of a base idea of it. I picked it up really well. I'm comfortable in the huddle. I didn't really have any problems communicating with that in the huddle. Obviously ran under center. We had two scoring drives. Most of my snaps were under center. I did it for two years at Florida. I'm very comfortable with all those things."

As comfortable as the Patriots would like? Comfortable enough for the Patriots to draft him? Feels unlikely, but ultimately remains to be seen. Grier indicated that he met with the team at the Senior Bowl, and though he wasn't scheduled to meet with New England at the combine, there will be other opportunities for the Patriots to get to know him if they so choose. 

From Grier's perspective, he'd relish the opportunity to come to the Patriots even if it meant sitting behind Tom Brady for a while.

"I don't really think you can put into words the kind of opportunity [that would be]," he said. "Me and [West Virginia offensive coordinator Jake Spavital] watched a lot of Patriots film and built our offense off a lot of -- obviously a lot of different terminology, but we would see stuff and say, 'We're going to do that.' Tom Brady does all right so we watched a lot of Tom Brady film. The opportunity to learn from a guy like that would obviously be priceless.

Grier added: "We watched a lot of film on them. In 2017 we were very wide-split oriented, which is kind of what Spavs brought to the game at some of the other places he's been that's different. A lot of what we did with the Patriots, we saw they were doing a lot of tighter split stuff. They were getting free releases on guys and working isolations and working diff routes all the way across the field. You get a little more isolation when you bring guys all the way across the field. You don't always get pressed up in that look so it's been interesting to kind of watch how they get guys open underneath. A lot of guys in the Big 12 are in quarters or they're in kind of cloud coverage, deep coverage, and it's hard to get guys open underneath. We watched a lot of their film and kind of picked different things that they were doing to get guys open underneath."

The Patriots could be interested in someone at Grier's position come the spring. It's unclear as to whether or not Grier specifically would fit, but if you asked him -- based on what we heard from him in Indy -- you'd probably get a pretty definitive answer.

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