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When Former Tulane quarterback Ryan Griffin arrived at the New Orleans Saints facility for a workout Friday morning, there wasn’t a lot of chit chat about schemes. Griffin, a 6-foot-5, 206-pound pro prospect, ran the Saints offense all fall as Tulane Coach Curtis Johnson is a former Saints receivers coach.

But Griffin did show off his accuracy and talk to Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael prior to the workout.

“I went there this morning at 8 (a.m.),” Griffin said. “I met with Coach Carmichael for a while. We didn’t really talk a whole lot of football necessarily. We talked about 30 minutes. I filled out the paperwork. I got dressed and I threw to a receiver from Boston College and so we went outside and warmed up. He ran a 40 – he is a freak of nature – 4.38. I just got warm and then we threw a couple routes followed by 30, 40 balls and it went really well. I got a good response.”

Griffin completed all his passes and was pleased with his first official pro workout.

“It’s not something that fazes you when you get up there,” Griffin said. “You don’t want to think about it too much. You want to get up there and throw the football around. It’s not a big deal.


"You should complete all the passes because you are on air and there is no one else out there. If you just look at it like, 'Hey, I’m going out there to have fun and just play football,' then it really is no big deal. The past couple months have been cool. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback and talked to a lot of NFL guys so it’s definitely been fun.”

The feedback Griffin received has been positive.

“They watched some of the game tapes and they notice how much I do, how many checks I do at the line and how tough I've been,” Griffin said. “I took a lot of hits and bounced back up. And my accuracy; accuracy is always big for quarterbacks.”

In college, Griffin threw for 9,036 yards and 56 TDs on 836-of-1,396 attempts (.600) and owns the school record for completions, completion percentage, and attempts, and ranks second in passing yards and 300-yard games (10), as well as fourth in touchdowns.

Griffin had an outstanding fall, finishing with a quarterback rating of 132.4, the highest of his career. He completed 245 passes for 394 yards and 2,771 yards (62.2 completion percentage). He threw for 20 touchdowns and had 11 interceptions.

He missed three games with an undisclosed shoulder injury but came back stronger, posting consecutive 400-yard-plus passing games after his return. Griffin said the fact he has made 39 career starts is a plus -- there is a Moneyball-type of stat out there that shows quarterbacks who make close to 40 starts in college tend to be more successful in the pros.

“I got good feedback from Coach Carmichael and Mickey (Loomis),” Griffin said.

Griffin has a tight schedule in the coming few weeks. In addition to working out at Tulane’s pro day Mar. 29 at 8 a.m., he has also scheduled a visit to the Chargers for a workout.

“I’m headed to San Diego on April 1 and then Pittsburgh’s quarterback coach is coming to pro day. He’s coming the night before so we can meet and have dinner. Every team can only have a certain number of people come in. He’s coming. Jacksonville’s quarterback coach is coming and the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback coach is coming.”

The Westlake, California, product – called “California Cool” by some Green Wave fans – said he is staying grounded and focused throughout this new process.

“Maybe I’ll look back on it and think about how cool it was but I’m trying not to do that right now,” Griffin said. “I’m trying to stay level-headed. There are still a lot of things that can happen so I’m just trying to take it one day at a time.”

Former Tulane quarterback Ryan Griffin works out for the New Orleans Saints on Friday | NOLA.com

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