TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - Arizona rookie quarterback Logan Thomas rejects the “project” label and says he’s a lot closer to being ready to play in the NFL than people think.
Thomas, the Cardinals’ fourth-round draft pick out of Virginia Tech, made the comments while meeting with reporters at Cardinals headquarters on Friday.
“I think I’m a lot more ready than people think,” he said. “I think people labeled me as a project simply off stats, which I can understand what they see, what they think.”
Thomas said that when the word project is used, “you’re thinking of building something from the ground up,” but he believes the problems he has are correctable.
He said he’s working in the offseason with quarterbacks specialist George Whitfield on the causes of the passing inaccuracy issues that were the main reason he was still around when Arizona made its fourth-round pick.
“For one, I put my foot down,” Thomas said. “I’d be on my tippy toes, which would cause me not to have the right balance and cause the ball to be erratic. So we fixed that to where I’m putting my whole foot on the ground.”
He also has had to work on how to throw under extreme pressure.
“When I’m under chaos in the pocket,” Thomas said, “being able to get back to a good position to throw the ball, because when I was off-balance was when things were going bad.”
The 6-foot-6 quarterback threw for 53 touchdowns but had 39 interceptions in his three seasons as Hokies starter. Last year, he had 16 TD passes and 13 picks.
“I don’t think it’s because I’m not accurate,” he said. “I think it’s just because I put myself in bad positions to be accurate, and everything’s correctable.”
He said he’s corrected some of the problems already in the offseason but knows he needs repetition.
“To break habits is really tough,” he said. “… I just think it’s a lot of reps over and over again.”
Coach Bruce Arians says the top two quarterbacks, Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton, are not going to change. That means Thomas has to beat out Ryan Lindley for the third-string job. Thomas said Lindley has been extremely helpful in meetings and informal workouts this week.
“Ryan’s been great actually, yesterday especially,” Thomas said. “I was out there asking a bunch of questions and he wasn’t hesitating to tell me and try to help me along.”
Asked which quarterbacks he looks to as models of what he wants to become, Thomas mentioned Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck.
“They’re extremely deadly with their arms,” he said, “but they’ll kill you with their legs outside the pocket.”
He also was asked where he’d like to be in two years.
“I’d love to be a starter in the league, playing great football, especially for a great organization like this,” Thomas said. “However it goes down, I see myself working up to the top. But if it doesn’t happen, I’ll still be the same person I am today, working hard and trying to get there.”
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