Despite undergoing surgery to deal with a tumor in his shoulder, Tennessee football quarterback Joey Aguilar has recovered enough to throw in front of NFL scouts. He went outside on UT’s practice field to do exactly that at the Vols’ Pro Day on Tuesday afternoon.
Afterward, Aguilar met with the media to discuss his performance.
Here’s what he said.
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On how he felt throwing the football
“Felt good. You know, I’m still super early in my throwing rehab. I just finished week four of like a 10-12 week process. So I wanted to go out there, show the teams that I’m healing pretty fast and I can still sling the rock. A little injured right now, but I’ll be healthy by the time the team picks me up. I just want to show them I still got it.”
On what a day like this means to him
“It’s awesome. The situation that happened to finally come out here and pursue one situation in this league and the connections I’ve made during the combine with teams and all the Zooms I’ve been having throughout these four weeks that I’ve been training. It’s been awesome to come out here and show the guys, like, I’m not healthy yet, early in my throwing rehab, but the ball’s coming out really well. And I was excited, I felt good, and wishing it could have been in Neyland one last time, but it is what it is.”
On how Tennessee prepared him
“A lot. Shout out to Heup (Josh Heupel), Joey (Halzle), Jared (Peery) and Landry (Jones) for the time they poured into me for the short amount of time I was here. And Landry’s helped me a lot through this process. I met with him one-on-one a lot throughout the season, and especially the time of the unknown of not knowing I was going to come back here or go to the league. NFL vet, spent a lot of time in the league, was kind of giving me tips of what to expect, what to do. That helped me at the combine as well because I up and just had to leave. So it was a good experience, and I’m thankful for these coaches.”
On throwing to Chris Brazzell
“It was nice. I wish we had a little more time to get some timing back down. You know, we were separated for a little while, but we started getting our connection a little later, especially for me. I mean, arm, that was one of the first times I’ve thrown like live routes in a while with my throwing rehab. So it felt good seeing him out there, throw the ball again. I wish we would have got probably one more deep ball in, though.
On if he’s still dealing with soreness
“Yeah, I mean, your typical normal stuff. Nothing like it used to be for sure. So now I could throw four or five, six times a week. Before it was maybe twice. But I’m feeling good right now. Just your typical quarterback soreness, but I’m excited to see how I am fully healthy. ”
On the last time he threw live routes before today
“Before my surgery. My rehab has been a lot of toddler routes, not knowing if I can throw full live routes. We’ll throw in a couple here and there, but deep balls and deeper routes, definitely first time throwing full routes. It was awesome, fun time.”
On how difficult it was to play through the tumor at the end of last year
“It was difficult. Arm was hurting really bad throughout the week. That would cause me to not to be able to throw certain routes. Taking away from practice of like a physical rep, but it was something I had to deal with and I chose to do that. So I embraced it and just enjoyed it.”
On the draft process
“It’s super busy. I’ve been having a lot of calls every day throughout the week. Saturday, Sunday is probably my only days off. Go out there and golf. If you guys follow me, you guys see. But it’s been busy, but it’s been fun. I’ve had really good conversations with everybody I’ve talked to. And everybody encourages me. And if I could work with them, it would be great. And if not, they wish me the best.”
On embracing the change to going pro
“Really just going day by day. I mean, football is football, and either way you go, you got to compete. So if I stayed here, my mindset was to go and compete, and obviously, I didn’t. So my mindset is still go and compete. I mean, I got a lot of room to improve on in my game. So that’s just what I’ve been doing in this off time of training and rehabbing. So that’s something I’m taking day by day. Shout out to my trainers.”
