Robert Griffin III Combine: Why Heisman Winner Should Partake in Throwing Drills

With quarterbacks scheduled to work out at the NFL Scouting Combine on Sunday, there is plenty of speculation regarding whether Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Robert Griffin III should throw. If he wants to impress talent evaluators, then he most certainly should.

According to Jarrett Bell of USA Today, Griffin is currently weighing his options and settling in before he decides whether he will throw. Griffin expressed concern about the environment being an unfair one, and while that may be true, throwing will prove to scouts that he is supremely confident in himself.

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It would be foolish to say it's even a fair and equitable environment for throwing, he says. When you show up in a game, you're never going in without a game plan. It's a disadvantage to throw when you have no idea of the rhythm that you will have with your receivers.

I'll decide when I get there. I'll do the other tests and see how it goes.

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Griffin has a point since it's impossible to know what receivers he'll be throwing to and it will be almost impossible to get into a rhythm, but such is life. The combine as a whole isn't really a fair evaluation tool because it features a bunch of scouts judging football players based on what they do while running around in shorts.

With that said, Griffin figures to stack up well with the other quarterbacks in other drills due to his supreme athleticism. Since he'll be viewed in a good light anyway, there's no reason for him not to throw as talent evaluators will be so enamored with his other skills that he'll likely be given pass if he performs poorly.

Griffin has inevitably been compared to NFL Rookie of the Year and last year's No. 1 overall pick Cam Newton. Some of that likely has to with the fact that they're both dual-threat quarterbacks, and quite frankly a lot of it probably has to do with the simple fact that they're both African American.

Whatever the case, things worked out quite well for Newton, so GR3 should take a page out of his book. Even though Newton seemed like the likely No. 1 pick heading into last year's combine, he made the decision to throw there rather than to wait for the more comfortable environment of his pro day.

Newton didn't put on an incredible performance in terms of his passing, but it didn't cause the Panthers to shy away in the least. If he was an absolute train wreck, then perhaps Carolina would have had reservations, but the scouts were probably just happy to see him go out there and put it all on the line.

Refraining from throwing at the combine is a sign of fear and uncertainty, and those aren't qualities that Griffin wants to be associated with. If he does choose to throw, then it proves that he is 100 percent confident in his abilities, even if the circumstances don't seem to be in his favor.

For somebody like Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, he might be better off not throwing since it's basically a foregone conclusion that the Indianapolis Colts are taking him first. On top of that, nobody is questioning his passing ability like many did with Newton last year and many are doing with Griffin this year.

When you consider teams possibly trading up, Griffin figures to be taken somewhere between No. 2 and No. 6 in April's draft. Teams probably still have a lot of questions regarding his ability to be a franchise quarterback, though, so it would behoove him to put it all out there on Sunday.

If Griffin refrains from throwing, then maybe it won't affect his draft stock at all, but if he does throw, then it creates an aura of confidence that teams love to see.