Jameis Winston has made his fair share of boneheaded decisions off the football field, but that apparently takes nothing away from his knowledge of the game.
According to Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report, at least one unnamed team official was blown away by Winston’s football IQ at the NFL Scouting Combine on Saturday.
“I think he’s probably the smartest player I’ve ever interviewed,” the evaluator reportedly told Freeman.
He isn’t the only person who was impressed. Another scout told Freeman that Winston’s knowledge of X’s and O’s resulted in a moment where team officials looked at one another and said, “Oh, okay, wow.” Winston has also supposedly addressed concerns about the incident he had with shoplifting, the rape accusation and his immature outburst on campus last year.
Former NFL head coach Steve Mariucci also held a one-on-one interview with Winston that aired over the weekend. NFL Network’s Rich Eisen said Mariucci described Winston as “the most astute X’s and O’s guy that he’s ever put on the board” before an NFL draft.
“He was not only answering the questions that Steve was throwing at him but anticipating what that question might lead to next and answering that question before Steve even posed it,” Eisen explained.
If you remember, it was just a few short months ago that Winston was supposedly falling off NFL Draft boards. We don’t know how NFL teams will feel about the latest claims Winston’s sexual assault accuser has made, but it seems like he is surpassing Marcus Mariota as the best quarterback prospect in the draft.
