Steven Montez
Quarterback / Colorado
Ed Hunt: How do you feel you’ve done with your footwork at the Pro Day?
Steven Montez: I thought I have improved drastically. Jordan has been doing a lot of different stuff with both my body and with my feet. I get my body all tied together. Sometimes my upper body would be going to the right and my feet would be going to the left. So, things like that make you inaccurate and make you inconsistent. That’s really just something we kept hammering on these past two and half months to try to clean up and just try to get consistent movement throughout my whole body.
Ed Hunt: Obviously you’ve played a lot with Laviska Shenault. Was it hard not having Laviska here working out with you?
Steven Montez: Yeah, obviously I wanted to see him come out and see it happen and catch for us. But I mean I know he’s going to do what he needs to do to kill it. I know that he’s the best receiver in this entire class. I have faith in him and wish him nothing but the best. I have love for Laviska.
Ed Hunt: Can you give me underclassmen to keep an eye on for next season?
Steven Montez: Nate Landman. He’s going to be one of the best linebackers in the nation next year. He’s a freak. He’s one of the toughest dudes that I’ve ever been around, he’s athletic and he loves to hit.
Ed Hunt: You’ve faced a lot of good secondaries in the PAC-12. Who was the best secondary you faced in the PAC-12?
Steven Montez: The best individual player that I faced was probably Lamar Jackson from Nebraska. I think he’s pretty good. We also made some plays on him too. I think he’s a stud. He’s long, he can run. He’s a good player. He plays that cover two. He moves pretty well. He got a pick off me in cover 2. He split the defenders, the shortest and deepest route runner. Break on the cash sink on the credit something like that, but he got a pick. And then the best overall secondary was Oregon. A lot of those guys came back. They’re going to be dangerous next year.
Ed Hunt: Can you tell me a bit about the combine. Just your take experience at the combine
Steven Montez: Really it was just an awesome experience. Just watching it growing up. My dad loves watching the combine. I remember vividly when I was just younger sitting on the couch with him and just watching the combine and the draft and just being a part of this whole process really getting a deep understanding of how it works. The inside is just something that I just dreamed about my whole life ever since I was a little kid. So, it really was just surreal. To just put it into one word, it was just surreal. To believe that I was in Lucas Oil Stadium running the 40. It just kind of didn’t make any sense to me and it just kind of felt fake.
Ed Hunt: How did you deal with the pressure (of the combine)?
Steven Montez: I thought it was fine. I didn’t approach it with a whole lot of pressure like it was the biggest moment that I was ever going to play. Playing on the path I want to go on, I want to play in a lot of big football games, a lot of big playoff games and Super Bowl games. That’s kind of where my mentality is at right now. I think if you’re going to be nervous from the combine, then you have to be nervous for the Super Bowl. I think you have to manage your expectations and manage your mindset when you’re in those type of situations because when you start playing nervous, then that’s when you miss things.
Ed Hunt: Can you give me a takeaway from the Senior Bowl?
Steven Montez: I thought it was kind of the same experience. It was definitely longer days. I’m just meeting with all the coaches. Talking ball all day. You don’t have a lot of opportunities where you just have a full day to talk football and that’s just kind of how the combine and Senior Bowl both were. You’re up early in the morning and you’re up really late at night and you are talking football 24/7. And you really don’t get tired because you just love the game so much. You love football so much. You love talking about it. Can’t get tired of it. Days just went by super quick. Look at your watch, it would be three in the afternoon. You’d look at it again and it would be 12. And where does the time go? Time flies when you’re having fun, talking football and just hanging out with coaches.
Ed Hunt: Would you say you are a student of the game? You are just a quarterback that loves to hit it in the film room?
Steven Montez: I think to be very successful in this game like I want to be, you have to hit the film really hard. You have to understand offensive and defensive football. And what better way to understand it then to watch the tape. Maybe get on the white board and draw it up. Just see it. Defenses are kind of like puzzles. If something is missing from the puzzle, then you can usually know where it is or what it is. For example, like it’s cover two. The corner in cover two has outside run contain before anything else. His hands on #1 forcing him outside and sinking, collecting, pursuing anything to the flats. Now that job is different in cover three. The alley player who would be outside run contain would have similar jobs just in different spots. He’s going to get hands on the number two receiver, funneling him inside to the single high safety and he’s sinking, collecting, pursuing to the flats. It’s basically the same. No matter what coverage it is. It’s kind of just moving people around and changing pieces.
