INDIANAPOLIS — Missouri QB Blaine Gabbert told reporters Friday that he trusted agent Tom Condon‘s advice to bypass throwing at the NFL Scouting Combine in favor of the more “controlled” setting of his upcoming pro day.

Gabbert called the combine interviews his focus this week, but he assured skeptics that he wasn’t shying away from competition.

“I’m going to make every throw,” he said of his plans for Missouri’s March 17 pro day. “There’s no throw I’m going to shy away from.”

The 6-foot-4, 234-pound Gabbert, one of the nation’s top quarterback prospects, isn’t preparing to languish in the shadows or live nestled away on an NFL depth chart.

“I’m going to go in with the mindset that I’m going to be the starter from Day 1,” he said. “That’s how quarterbacks have to be. You’ve gotta be the competitor that’s going to go in there, work your tail off and fight for the starting job.

“As soon as I’m drafted, I’m going to work to be the starting quarterback.”

Gabbert was asked if he could end up as the No. 1 overall pick by the Panthers in April’s draft.

“Anything’s possible,” he said, adding that he has entered his interviews with NFL teams “with the mindset that they need a quarterback. That they’re the No. 1 draft pick.”

Gabbert acknowledged that he could instead wind up on a team with an embedded veteran passer, but he said his work ethic eventually would pay off in the NFL.

“I’m going to outwork everybody,” he said. “That’s how I was raised, that nothing’s ever going to be given to you in life, you’ve got to earn everything you get. That’s kind of the mindset I’ve taken with football. I’m never going to be outworked by anybody else.”

– Marc Sessler

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