With the rise of mobile quarterback, a mobile quarterback from Mobile is back in Mobile in the hopes of attracting the attention of a coach looking for a mobile quarterback.
According to Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post, White showed up at the Senior Bowl on Monday, hoping for a chance to resume an NFL career that ended during training camp in 2010. It’s fitting that he’d launch his comeback there, given that, four years ago, he was the star of the game.
“I’m still young. My legs are still with me,” White said. “I’m like a 2009 model with about 4,500 miles on it. It still runs just as smooth.”
So he’s looking for a way to get some more mileage on his tires.
“I know that I can still do it,” White said. “I just want to come out here, shake hands, show my face and let coaches know that I’m interested.”
The suggestion that he can still do it presumes he ever could. White, who became the first quarterback to win four bowl games during his time at West Virginia, was a disaster during his one NFL season as a second-round pick of the Dolphins, running the Wildcat with Tebow-like frequency and ultimately sustaining a concussion on what appeared to be a fairly routine hit from Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor.
To his credit, White takes the blame for his NFL failures.
“Everyone wants to point fingers as to why it didn’t work out in the NFL. I felt it was because of me,” White said. “I could’ve done a lot more film study, a lot more working on my game. Instead of being there 30 minutes after practice, be there an hour. It’s the little things.”
Little could be the key word. He’s not very tall, and he’s not very large, by NFL standards. I saw him at the Baylor-West Virginia game, and we’re about the same size.
Still, he’s confident. And with 90 offseason roster spots and a trend/fad toward mobile quarterbacks from Mobile or elsewhere, it could make sense to see if one of the best college quarterbacks of the last decade was simply a couple of years ahead of his time.