Afternoon Practice – Marques Hagans Trying To Impress Again
Posted by Matt Terl on August 19, 2009 – 4:06 pm
After special teams this afternoon, Marques Hagans was putting on a show. TV cameras swung his way and the print reporters stood around watching, impressed. That’s the good news for Hagans. The bad news is, he was impressing by throwing the ball through the uprights from 65 yards away as part of some post-practice hijinks with Keith Eloi and Trent Shelton. It was an impressive stunt, but not exactly what the team is hoping to see from the college-QB-turned-NFL-wide-receiver-hopeful.
It’s been a rough turn for Hagans, who started camp turning heads and who seemed to be the frontrunner for the fifth wide receiver spot heading into the game against Baltimore. That game did not go as he’d planned.
“You know,” Hagans says, “camp had been going so good, that was the first thing as far as adversity that I’ve faced. It just came at a bad time during the game. But you’ve gotta keep fighting. It definitely wasn’t the way that I wanted to go out and perform, especially the way camp was going, but … you know, I refuse to get down on myself and act like it’s all over. I’ve just gotta continue to come out every day and keep practicing and getting better.”
It’s an incredibly strange situation for a person to be in, if you think about it. It’s not very often in our lives that we look around at our co-workers and think, hey, because of how I did my job a few nights ago, this guy might be one step closer to taking it from me. That’s just not really the way the world works for most of us.
Hagans tries not to let it get to him. “It’s still the same,” Hagans says of his practices since the Baltimore game. “You know, just the same focus, the same work ethics, just continuously going out and trying to get better, trying to put the game behind me. It’s hard, when you play as poorly as I felt I did, just waiting for the next chance to get your opportunity, because they don’t come too many times. It’s just about staying focused and staying ready.”
I’m not sure I’d be able to face this kind of situation with the same relative equanimity, and I told him so. “I’ve never stopped believing in myself,” he said, shrugging. “I know that I didn’t play as well as I wanted to, but I think as long as I continue to be consistent, continue to work hard, and then when opportunity comes again, just make the most of it. It’s a long way from over. Like I said, I’m not gonna get discouraged or get down on myself. Just keep fighting like I’ve always been doing.”
As he looks toward this week’s game against Pittsburgh, Hagans knows that his opportunities may be more limited. “I’m pretty sure with the way I played, my time might get pushed back a little bit. It’s natural, when you play like that. You know, I’ve gotta be ready for whatever time I get. Whether it’s a lot or whether it’s a little, just make the most of the opportunities I get.”
When I talked to Hagans back in OTAs, I asked him if he was worried about being pigeon-holed as a “practice-squad guy” and never getting a fair shot. It turns out that his experience dealing with that kind of thinking so far is one of his greatest assets right now. “It’s nothing new. Every year I’ve been goin’ out for a team, I’ve always been on the last couple of numbers. Before I would stress myself out and try to count on them. Now I just play, and whatever happens happens. I go day to day; whatever happened before doesn’t exist, whether it was good or bad. Just continue to go to the next play and the next practice and the next game. It doesn’t shake my confidence. It hurts that I played like that, but it won’t shake me. I just have to continue to work hard.”
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