AUBURN, Ala. -- For one last time, Cam Newton, the Heisman trophy winner from Westlake High, lit up the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
In a spectacular workout, he dazzled more than 125 NFL executives and more than 90 members of the media in a workout that was closed to the public.
Either the general manager or the head coach from teams with the top six picks in the NFL draft were in attendance, including Carolina coach Ron Rivera, Buffalo general manager Buddy Nix, Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis, Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt and Cleveland coach Pat Shurmur.
Denver had vice president of football operations John Elway, coach John Fox and general manager Brian Xanders present.
Newton powered through 60 scripted throws and then took special requests from some of the league's top coaches. Overall, he completed 54 of 65 passes.
"I've been working on my craft, just trying to get better," Newton said.
The performance came in the wake of a showing at the NFL scouting combine that was not as polished. He completed only 11 of 21 passes and was erratic on some passes. Throwing passes in familiar surroundings and to his former receivers made a major difference for Newton.
Nix, whose team holds the third pick in the draft, was impressed with Newton's deep passes.
"I think that if you're not careful sometimes, you'll let the percentage of completions fool you with a quarterback because most of them are zero- to 9-yard passes," Nix said. "You'd like to see him throw the corner routes and the deep routes and see what kind of accuracy he's got with that."
Newton has been working with George Whitfield, a quarterbacks coach out of San Diego. They came up with a script that would showcase Newton's athletic ability and accuracy.
He also took all of his snaps from a center, something he rarely did in Auburn's spread offense.
"We wanted to show everyone who was in attendance, not only the intermediate game, but the perimeter throws, the [skinny posts] and the out routes," Newton said. "For me, I just wanted to show everybody what I've been working on."
The round of drills lasted more than five hours as 22 players, including defensive tackle Nick Fairley, went through drills. Newton, whose session lasted 48 minutes, spent some time chatting with Rivera, whose team holds the first pick in the draft.
Newton said he's not motivated to be selected No. 1 overall in the draft, which will be held April 28-30.
"My goal is for me to become the best player that I can be," Newton said. "Tomorrow will be another day for me to work on my craft and become a better football player. I'm not going to worry about something that I do not have control over. But I do have control over myself and how I make this transition fluidly to the NFL."
NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock came away generally impressed with Newton's showing.
"The kid has a big arm, and he's got great athletic ability," Mayock said. "That intermediate stuff is what you don't see in spread offenses in college football. I knew he had great deep touch and accuracy. I knew he could throw the ball short. What I wanted to see was a combination of the intermediate routes and the footwork.
"For me, the footwork, like for any young spread quarterback, he has a long way to go."
Newton had struggled throwing the 10-yard out routes at the scouting combine.
"I just think he worked his butt off," Whitfield said. "It's only been like nine days, and he really tightened that up and was comfortable. I think we threw four or five [out routes] today, and he was attacking every one of them. I knew that was going to be a big route for those who had a chance to see the combine."
