By ZAC BOYER | zboyer@freelancestar.com | @ZacBoyer
INDIANAPOLIS – Brandon Weeden used to hate being questioned about his age. That it would come up as something to be held against him used to bother him greatly.
Weeden
But Weeden, the 28-year-old Oklahoma State quarterback, has grown to embrace his uncommon situation in recent weeks.
“It used to kind of get under my skin, but there can be a lot worse things I can be answering questions about,” Weeden said Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium, the site of the annual NFL Combine. “There’s nothing else. That’s really the only knock on me is my age. I have fun with it. And here’s the fact: I can’t change it. I can change a lot of things, my footwork, throwing motion, release, this and this and this. I can’t change my birth certificate.”
Weeden is, by far, the oldest of the 300-plus prospects going through workouts in preparation for the NFL Draft in April. The drawback of that is, of course, the biological clock. Why would teams draft Weeden when they could look for someone younger – perhaps Arizona’s Nick Foles, or Arizona State’s Brock Osweiler?
“Roger Staubach,” Weeden said. “You’ve got Kurt Warner. I can go on. You’ve got Rich Gannon. Think of it, there’s a lot of guys.”
Weeden spent five years in the minor leagues farm system before giving up his dream of playing professional football to pursue a career in football. He ended up at Oklahoma State, where he spent the past two years as its starting quarterback, and emerged as an NFL-quality player.
If it wasn’t for his age, Weeden would likely be a surefire first-round draft pick. That may still happen, should a team with the 25th through 32nd picks either pursue him or give up their slot to a team that needs him.
The Washington Redskins are considered in the mix for Weeden, who competed at the Senior Bowl for Mike Shanahan and the rest of the coaching staff. Weeden found that to be a helpful experience, as did the Redskins; quarterbacks coach Matt LaFleur spoke to Weeden on Thursday night.
“They were impressed with my arm strength, my accuracy, stuff like that,” Weeden said. “As the week went on, I got more and more comfortable with the offense. I got more and more comfortable with the system, calling plays in the huddle, because that offense is kind of terminology driven. There’s a lot of wordy plays. But as the week went on, I felt more and more comfortable. I think overall, I had a pretty good week.”
That doesn’t mean that Weeden will end up in Washington. He knows this. As a high school senior, the only baseball team that didn’t visit Weeden was the New York Yankees – and they chose him in the second round in 2002.
“Everybody has their speculations on where you go, and it’s so hard to say because I’ve been there before,” Weeden said. “It only takes one team. You never know who that team is going to be, and I think I’ll be a good fit for whoever decides to take me.”
