CHARLOTTE -- The football comes out of his hand crisply, spiraling toward its target with no doubt. It zips just over the ear of a defender and into the hands of the receiver running straight down the field. It is a pure strike.
Joshua Nesbitt smiles and rubs his hands together. Just as soon, the emotion is gone and he's calling out another snap count.
Nesbitt is not about to relax after one good pass. He threw many more during the practice drill. Every completion he hopes is another step toward making sure his baby daughter, Carmyn Jaye, and mother, Jean Robbins, have a chance at better lives. Every spiral is a response to those who don't think he can make it to the NFL after dominating as an option quarterback at Georgia Tech.
Nesbitt rarely worries about what others think. He remembers many of them didn't think an option offense would work in the ACC. Nesbitt led the Yellow Jackets to a conference championship in 2009 and became the most prolific rushing quarterback in league history.
But the NFL isn't about rushing quarterbacks.
So here, in a warehouse in an industrial park on the south side of town, Nesbitt goes about doing what perhaps only he and a few others think he can do: make it in the NFL at any position.
"I feel like I would be a great asset to a team," he said recently. "Just tell me what you need to do and I'll go out and do it."
Nesbitt the quarterback
When Nesbitt began working out here in early January, one of his tutors noticed that he was putting his index finger on the end of the ball when he threw, which can cause it to wobble. Anthony Wright, a former NFL quarterback who was one of several veterans working with an eight-man group of hopefuls, suggested he slide the finger around for a better grip.
Nesbitt didn't realize he was pushing the ball. Passes started coming out more cleanly.
"Accuracy, that's the most important thing," Wright said. "If you can't place the ball where it needs to be placed, you won't last long."
It's that kind of one-on-one instruction with former NFL'ers that led Nesbitt to leave Tech after the season for Charlotte, where his agent Robert Walker lives. Nesbitt, former teammate Dominique Reese and other players work out twice a week in a baseball-turned-football indoor facility that his agent leases. When the weather is good, they go to a nearby football field. They spend two more days at the YMCA improving their flexibility and doing other plyometric exercises. They spend two more days doing yoga and watching film. They also listen to lectures on handling the media, finances and aspects of being a pro athlete.
"We're being treated like we are first-rounders," said Nesbitt, who has shaved off his short dreadlocks. He lives with Reese in a condo their agent owns in the Ballantyne area south of the city.
He's 24 credit hours from a management degree. He said he's going to return to Tech to finish but he needed to prepare for his Pro Day workout for scouts next Wednesday.
Nesbitt has impressed Wright and his trainer, Darin Tyson, who said Nesbitt has the physical tools and demeanor to be an NFL quarterback.
In addition to his grip, Nesbitt has worked on his three-, five-, and seven-step drops. He's worked on standing tall when searching for a receiver and shortening his throwing stride. Doing so has also improved his accuracy. He was a 42.9 percent passer at Tech, leaving many to wonder if he could ever be an NFL quarterback. He wasn't invited to any of the senior all-star games or to the NFL Combine.
"I feel like more of a pro-style quarterback now, but overall I feel like an athlete because I have to be more open-minded," said Nesbitt, who threw for 3,276 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Walker projects Nesbitt as the next Brad Smith, who has been a multi-dimensional player for the New York Jets after a stellar career as a Missouri quarterback. Nesbitt and Smith have similar builds, though they played in much different college systems.
Nesbitt the running back
Natrone Means, another instructor, likes Nesbitt's potential as a running back.
He likes his size (6 feet 1, 220 pounds) and the fact that he ran the ball often at Tech. Means, an NFL back for seven seasons, said Nesbitt needs be more natural. The drills the running backs were doing, including one where the runner sprints in place and stiff-arms foam footballs as they fly at him, aren't natural to Nesbitt.
"He's not fluid, but he's an athlete so it's not a hard transition," Means said.
Nesbitt hasn't played running back since he was in middle school. "They didn't teach you anything other than grab the ball and go," he said.
He knows how to run, rushing for 2,806 yards and 35 touchdowns at Tech. He knows how to lower his shoulder when he needs to. He also believes he has the speed. Tyson said they expect him to run a sub-4.5 40-yard dash at Pro Day. They have been focused on improving his time in the first 10 yards. Scouts will want to see how quickly he can get through the line of scrimmage.
"Nesbitt's really raw, but we are seeing development," Tyson said.
Nesbitt the hopeful
After the workout, a host of NFL veterans and current players, from Sean Gilbert to Steve Smith, offered advice. The No. 1 theme: do whatever you have to do to make a roster. "If he goes forward the way he's worked here, he'll be fine," Means said.
Nesbitt knows all about that. He ran a passing offense in high school and thought he would be playing in a pro-style offense at Tech before Chan Gailey was fired.
When asked if he has any regrets about staying at Tech to operate Paul Johnson's spread offense, Nesbitt paused.
"I would say no, overall no," he said. "I learned a lot. I think God put me in position where I was to learn and I learned a lot."
He played hurt, perhaps more than anyone knows. The broken arm he sustained at Virginia Tech in November is healed, though he says he still thinks about the play daily. He says he's happy, ready to answer questions and ready to show off what he's learned, both at camp and from former teammates, like Morgan Burnett.
"He told me to be myself," Nesbitt said. "Just go out everyday like it's your last and perform. Just go out and do it.
"That's basically my life story. Just go out and do my job. People are going to talk, but you have to go out and perform."
