Hours after an NFL Scouting Combine performance that one scout said “looks terrible,” Auburn quarterback Cam Newton acknowledged that he struggled.
But Newton said his struggles were just a matter of not knowing the receivers he was working with -- and he seemed to suggest that throwing to slower receivers from smaller schools was a problem.
“I underestimated the timing aspect of playing quarterback,” Newton told NFL Network. “You had receivers from the SEC, the SWAC, the MAC. . . . I was somewhat frustrated, but at the same time, I was having fun out there.”
In the same NFL Network appearance, Marshall Faulk needled Newton about his infamous “entertainer and icon” comment, and Newton tried his best to put that comment in perspective.
“My response [to Sport Illustrated‘s Peter King] was, I view myself as that due to the fact that I’m not only going to just be selling football cleats, I’m going to be selling lifestyle apparel — everything else,” he said. “I could have picked way more [different] words to express what I really wanted to say. I want to personally apologize to everybody who was offended about it.”
Now Newton will prepare for a March 8 Pro Day workout that he hopes won’t result in another round of explanations for a sub-par performance.
