TEMPE, Ariz. -- The last time Seth Russell stepped onto a football field was Nov. 12 in Norman, Oklahoma.
He was Baylor’s quarterback, a one-time Heisman Trophy candidate and a guy who came back from a fractured bone in his neck. Russell liked to run -- too much, some would say. He was a run-pass option quarterback who made plays happen with his feet when pass plays broke down. On that Saturday against the Oklahoma Sooners, that's what Russell was doing. The Bears were down 25 in the third quarter. It was first-and-10. The play broke down. Russell ran. When he was tackled, his ankle snapped, and his college career was over.
It was his second major injury in 13 months.
He didn’t start walking again until three days after Christmas.
On Saturday, 112 days after the ankle injury, Russell will take the field in Indianapolis at the NFL scouting combine, preparing another rehabilitation -- this one of his game and, in some ways, his reputation for being prone to injury. Plenty believe he can be an NFL quarterback, but Russell has to prove a few things this weekend, and he might be limited to just throwing.
It’s still yet to be determined by Russell’s camp if he’ll participate in any of the other drills or if he'll wait until his pro day April 5 at Baylor. He needs to show he can adjust to being a pro-style quarterback, which means he can take snaps under center; execute three-, five- and seven-step drops; and make all the throws that would be required of him at the next level.
Former interim Baylor coach Jim Grobe didn’t hesitate to say Russell has an NFL arm.
“I’ve not seen any issues,” Grobe said. “I think he’s got a good deep ball. I think he’s got a nice touch on the underneath stuff.”
Russell has spent the last two months working with former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna in Texas on everything from footwork to verbiage, preparing not just for the combine but for a career. Before he can succeed in the NFL, however, Russell has to master some of the basics. He’s been working on how to move in the pocket and make throws on the run, as well as his dropbacks. He essentially needs to delete the cache of muscle memory that taught him to tuck the ball and take off in college, and replace it with the skill set of a traditional drop-back passer.
“It’s football,” he said. “You’re reading the same guys. It’s just, you got to drop into it, add a play fake, go under center, whatever it may be -- take your eyes away from the defense, seven-step, play-action, step into the pocket, make a throw down the field.
“It all translates really good.”
That type of adjustment typically takes quarterbacks a year or two, if they can make it at all. Grobe thinks Russell might be able to accomplish it in time to play, if needed, in the fall.
“He’s a really brilliant kid,” said Grobe, who is a neighbor of Cardinals coach Bruce Arians at their lake community in rural Georgia. “He will adapt. He’s got the tools, in my opinion. He’s got some good toughness. He's got a strong arm down the field, and he’s just got great character. He’ll be a guy that will pick up the playbook in a hurry.”
Last season, Baylor played under a cloud of a scandal that led to the firing of former coach Art Briles and the subsequent hiring of Grobe. Russell felt the need to shoulder the offensive load at times, trying to make the big play instead of making a quick check down, especially when Baylor was losing by two or three touchdowns. The Bears won their first six games, then lost their next six, three of those after Russell was lost for the season.
“I felt like I had to take it on my own, which I shouldn’t have to do or have it on my head, but I’m a competitor,” Russell said. “Everybody tells me to slide or I’ll get hurt. Depending on what the situation is, if we’re up 25 or 14 or even seven, yeah, I’ll slide.
“I have to learn that.”
Wherever he lands in the NFL, Russell is expecting teams to drill into him the need to slide and get down -- if he has to run at all. But it will take a lot of self-discipline for Russell to listen, even after two severe injuries.
“Longevity is what it’s about [in the NFL],” Russell said. “I feel like that’s easy to learn.
“I just want to be the best, and I just want to win games. If that’s putting my body at risk to help the team out, that’s something I felt like I had to do [last] year, even though I probably stuck it out too far, obviously, with the injury. I know going to the next level, they’re head-hunters. They’re the best guys on the field everywhere, so it’s easy to learn, quick to learn, and I’m excited about it.”
Russell is convinced his injury history won’t affect how teams view him. If they question him, he’ll point to how he recovered from neck surgery, which was performed by Dr. Sanford Emery, the chairman of the West Virginia University Health Sciences Center. One of Russell’s older brothers, Joshua, an orthopedic resident at the WVUHSC, helped orchestrate Seth’s neck surgery. In late July and early August, Russell went through a series of combine drills to show his progress from the neck surgery.
He also needs to show that his ankle is fine.
“I had one of the best doctors in the nation doing it," Russell said about Dr. James Bothwell in Fort Worth, Texas. "They’re going to vouch for me. I’m going to go through the training. I did the training before the season with the little combine deal that I did, and that was to prove my neck was not going to be a factor, and it wasn’t. I didn’t have any residual effects. Nothing from that.
“This is just a minor setback. It’s just a broken bone. It’s going to heal.”