Stetson Bennett's return to Indianapolis for NFL combine a different kind of business trip

INDIANAPOLIS — Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J, Stroud and Florida’s Anthony Richardson preceded Stetson Bennett in the NFL combine interview room Friday morning. Kentucky’s Will Levis was a couple of podiums over in the Indiana Convention Center when Bennett met with reporters after 10:30, drawing about twice as many as the Georgia quarterback.

All of them are projected NFL first-round draft picks. Bennett, the one who won back-to-back national championships, with playoff wins over Young and Stroud the last two years, is considered a Day 3 pick. Maybe even late round or undrafted free agent.

Bennett will have to make believers of people again.

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Just like when he didn’t get big school offers out of Pierce County High in Blackshear. Or when he left Georgia as a walk-on for junior college. And when he slid down the depth chart in 2021 after losing the starting job a year earlier after returning to Athens a scholarship player.

“I have confidence in my abilities,” Bennett said, wearing his combine-issued "QB-02" hooded sweatshirt. “There’s so much more to playing quarterback than people know. There’s different offenses, different checks, different motions. Whatever your asked to do that’s all you can do in the offense, right? And then you have your physical ability. ... Especially at the quarterback position, the mental acuity and how you can handle certain situations, you can’t really measure that.”

Bennett is back in Indianapolis where he shed tears on the sideline after Kelee Ringo’s pick-six sealed the 33-28 win over Alabama to win the national title on Jan. 10, 2022.

This is a different type of business trip. It’s not to win a championship, but to improve his draft stock after his name made headlines for the wrong reasons in the early morning of Jan. 29 in Dallas when he was arrested for public intoxication. Police were called for someone knocking on doors and found Bennett.

“It was a mistake that everybody’s aware of,” Bennett said, speaking publicly about the incident for the first time. “I understand why that can’t happen. I’ve talked to coaches about it, talked to GMs. I apologized to my family. That’s who I felt worse about. I felt like I let them down because no matter where I go now and even without all this, I’ve got an obligation. I’m the fourth (Stetson Bennett IV). Can’t do that if you’re last name is Bennett. I know better.”

Bennett said the arrest came up when he interviewed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this week who are having to replace NFL legend Tom Brady.

“I thought it went well,” he said. “They asked me some questions wondering about the incident, answered them. Asked me about football. Asked me about life, tried to figure out who I was.”

Bennett called walking back into Lucas Oil Stadium, which he said he loves the look, as “pretty cool.” His mind took him back to moments in that game including even his fourth-quarter fumble that didn’t keep Georgia from coming out on top.

He’s been working on his footwork and passing with Landry Klann at QB Country in Fort Worth to get ready for the throws he will be asked to do Saturday in his workout.

“The turf feels a little different than it did,” he said. “It’s definitely warmer. It was freezing.”

Bennett said he hasn’t run a full 40-yard dash yet. He’s worked on his speed and starts.

He doesn’t have the size of some of the other top QB prospects like Levis who is 6-3 and 232 pounds or Richardson who goes 6-4 and 232. Bennett was listed at 5-11 and 190 pounds at Georgia. He had six college seasons and will turn 26 next fall.

“I think it’s important to evaluate the physical traits, but to me that position is in a totally different stratosphere because you have to evaluate the person, how they learn, the instincts, how they process information,” Giants general manager Joe Schoen said. “You can watch the film and see one thing but the make up of the kid, I think is way more important. If it mirrors up, I think that’s when you’ve got a good quarterback.”

Bennett was a very good college quarterback who will go down as one of, if not the greatest Bulldog ever. A Heisman Trophy finalist who went 29-3 as a Georgia starter and was named MVP in the biggest games at Georgia — the Orange and Peach Bowl semifinals and both national championship games.

“Once you’re in that situation, you know what the situation is,” he said. “You understand everything that comes with it. You can handle it, you know how to prepare. For me it was always the unknown. What is this championship? Now, it’s a game and you’ve got to play well in it. All the lights in the world don’t matter if you don’t win.”

Bennett has the ability to run designed quarterback runs and extend plays out of the pocket. He rushed for 10 touchdowns last season, and his ability to escape trouble contributed to Georgia give up only 9 quarterback sacks last season. He set a Georgia single-season record with 4,127 passing yards and threw for 27 touchdowns with 7 interceptions.

“I feel like he’s going to do Stetson things,” former Georgia tight end Darnell Washington said Friday about Bennett in the NFL. “That’s showing out, showing the doubters what he can actually do. … He’s a hell of an athlete, a hell of a player.”

Can Bennett’s game translate to the NFL level?

“It is the same game,” said Bennett, who worked in a system run by an offensive coordinator in Todd Monken who had an NFL background. “There are obviously a million things to work on, but as far as protections and scheme, at the very least, Coach Monk helped me at least have a foundational knowledge that I can apply to the next system that I’m asked to do it in.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: What former Georgia football QB Stetson Bennett thinks of NFL future