U-M's Gardner will play QB, WR, 'whatever it takes' in NFL

When Devin Gardner met with NFL teams at January's East-West Shrine Game, the focus was on his resilience.

Gardner endured three offensive coordinators, switched from quarterback to receiver, then back to quarterback at Michigan, and endured an assortment of injuries throughout his career behind a patchwork offensive line.

All that might earn him respect as he tries to find a spot in the league, he said Saturday after signing autographs at the M-Den in Ann Arbor.

Teams discussed "the way I handled the entire experience" he said, and how it reflected his toughness.

Although Gardner set passing and total offense records at quarterback the past 21/ 2 years while struggling with turnovers, he's on the move again.

At 6-feet-4, 218 pounds, he's listed as a receiver for the NFL draft, the position he played in the Shrine game, even though he admitted three or four teams are interested in him at quarterback.

"My dream is to play football in the NFL, so that's what I'm going to do," he said, noting that he worked out for the Falcons and Bengals last week. He also expects to work out for the Patriots and Chiefs this week and the Steelers at some point.

"If a team wants me to play quarterback, I'll play quarterback. If you want me to be a scout-team quarterback when I'm a receiver, I'll do that. I'm pretty sure it's openly known that I'll do whatever it takes to help the team."

That adaptability helped him in his previous transitions, and he said there have been no problems this time.

Gardner was not invited to the NFL combine but made the most of his U-M pro day on March 13. He said he ran 4.59-to-4.62 in the 40-yard dash, showing the speed that made him elusive in the open field as a quarterback.

Gardner has sought advice from others who have made the transition from quarterback to receiver, including New England's Julian Edelman, whose suggestion centered more on Gardner taking care of his feet in training camp once he gets on a team.

When Gardner moved to receiver for the first half of the 2012 season, playing eight games until returning to quarterback after Denard Robinson's injury, he seemed a natural.

Recalling those first practices entering that season, he said he won his first three one-on-one battles with the defenders. Then, when he returned there during the Shrine week this year, he scored on his first reception in a drill.

"We had tons of workouts before the pro day, and I was like, he really was that smooth," former U-M receiver Devin Funchess said, recalling Gardner's basketball exploits in high school at Inkster. "He's a good athlete."

The skills are being refined in his Ann Arbor workouts with former U-M receivers coach Erik Campbell, now an operations assistant with the Michigan program.

Campbell's track record molding previous U-M receivers and often high draft picks (Tai Streets, David Terrell, Marquise Walker, Braylon Edwards, Jason Avant, Steve Breaston, Mario Manningham) appealed to Gardner, who arrived after Campbell had left for Iowa in 2008.

There's already a base — Gardner said teams are more focused on his current receiving workouts than his 2012 production — but understands having game film from back then will help.

"I know how to get open because I know where to be because I played quarterback," he said. "I run good routes ... I catch the ball. The ball is the issue."

Even through the transition, Gardner remains supremely confident.

He refuses to worry about the possibility that he may not get drafted and said he's already impressing, thinking a few teams were surprised by how well he played at the Shrine game.

Despite their different size and styles, Gardner knows he will be compared to former U-M quarterback Denard Robinson, who finally found his footing as an NFL running back last season for the Jaguars. Their conversations are rarely about football, but Robinson was a model in one aspect.

"Football is football and you only need a chance," Gardner said. "When he got a chance, he took advantage," Gardner said of Robinson.

Contact Mark Snyder: msnyder@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark__snyder.