Leinart Looks to Prove Himself During Workout

He has a Heisman Trophy, a pair of national championships, and perhaps is as marketable as any player ever to emerge from college football.

So what does USC quarterback Matt Leinart have to prove?

Plenty, evidently.

At least that’s the way he’s approaching his April 2 pro day, when he plans to dazzle dozens of NFL coaches, executives and scouts in a 45-minute workout at USC. He plans to show his ability to scramble, to throw out of awkward positions and to make the most difficult of passes. In other words, he wants to do what the Trojans seldom asked of him.

“I know a lot of teams question my arm strength,” he said Friday at the NFL scouting combine. “I’ve never questioned my arm strength. I think I’ve proven it in three years of playing with top-notch competition. I’m a lot more mobile than people think; I’ve never had to run.”

Like his teammate Reggie Bush and Texas quarterback Vince Young, Leinart won’t be working out for the scouts at the combine this weekend. Instead, he has undergone the requisite physical and psychological testing, and has interviewed with teams in position to select him around the top of the draft.

A likely scenario has Bush going to the Houston Texans as the No. 1 pick, and Leinart going second to the New Orleans Saints, who are said to be skittish about making a riskier pick at that spot.

He said he’s “absolutely not” concerned about the uncertain future of the Saints, who were uprooted from New Orleans last season because of the Hurricane Katrina devastation, and whose future in that city looks murky.

“If I were to go to the Saints, it would be an honor,” he said. “Just to get drafted and go to the NFL is an honor. Obviously, the city of New Orleans is going through some troubles right now, but it would be kind of cool to be a part of that, the rebuilding of the city.”

Tennessee has the third pick, and the Titans too are looking for a quarterback. Should he go there, Leinart would be reunited with Norm Chow, his former offensive coordinator at USC.

“It seems like so long ago that I was with him,” Leinart said. “He’s big on philosophy and talking just about the game and about life. He really helped me to prepare. That kind of trickled down after he left to [Steve] Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin who I had [as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator] last season. Norm Chow helped me become the quarterback who I am.”

Leinart said teams asked him about the eye problem he had at birth, one that required a pair of surgeries.

“I was born cross-eyed,” he said. “What are you going to do?”

He underwent his first surgery at age 1 1/2 , and a second during the summer before his freshman year in high school. He wore glasses up to that point, but hasn’t needed them since.

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He doesn’t have the resume of Leinart or Young, but Vanderbilt quarterback Jay Cutler could be among the first five players selected.

Scouts love the potential of the 6-foot-3, 226-pound Cutler, even though his college pedigree leaves something to be desired. In his four seasons at Vanderbilt, the Commodores went 11-35 and won just five of 32 games in the Southeastern Conference.

“I got it done without a lot of guys around me,” he said. “Nothing against those guys, I love them to death, but I didn’t have All-Americans scattered across the field and I had to adjust, I had to deal with pressure. I had to deal with getting the ball into tight places, so I think it is going to help me going to the next level, dealing with adversity and being able to succeed through it.”

As for adjusting to the speed of the NFL, well, it’s not as if he had the luxury of throwing out of a comfy pocket with the Commodores.

“At times we don’t have the front five to block the Floridas and LSUs so I had to throw off my back foot,” Cutler said. “I had to move around a little bit and couldn’t really get my feet set or my hips in line and stuff. There’s a lot of aspects that go into playing quarterback.”

Cutler, the son of an Indiana highway patrolman, also provided one of the quotes of the day when asked whether the forthcoming infusion of money will change him as a person.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll find out soon.”

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In light of some of the top prospects opting out of workouts at the combine, UCLA running back Maurice Drew had a different perspective about the process: he’ll do whatever NFL evaluators ask of him.

“I feel like if you come to the combine, that’s the way to do it,” Drew said. “There’s no reason not to work out. You’re taking up other people’s slots. So you need to use this opportunity with all the coaches and general managers here, and be able to do your best. Just go out there and compete. If you do your best, you can’t be mad at yourself.”

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Heisman highs, lows

Matt Leinart, the Heisman Trophy winner in 2004, is expected to be a top first-round selection in the NFL draft. Three of the five previous Heisman-winning quarterbacks are now out of the league.

* 2003 -- Jason White, Oklahoma, who won the Heisman his junior year, signed as an undrafted free agent in 2005 with Tennessee but retired after the start of training camp because of knee problems.

* 2002 -- Carson Palmer, USC, was drafted No. 1 overall by Cincinnati in 2003. He started 13 games in 2004 and led the Bengals to an AFC North Division title in 2005 while leading the NFL with 32 touchdown passes.

* 2001 -- Eric Crouch, Nebraska, was drafted in the third round by St. Louis in 2002 but failed to make the transition from quarterback to receiver. He is now with Toronto in the CFL as a backup quarterback.

* 2000 -- Chris Weinke, Florida State, who at 28 became the oldest player to win the Heisman, was drafted by Carolina in the fourth round in 2001. He started 15 games in 2001 but has been a backup since then.

* 1996 -- Danny Wuerffel, Florida, was selected in the fourth round by New Orleans in 1997 and started 10 games from 1997 to 2002.