NFL draft diary: Huskies' Shaq Thompson tells teams he's LB, not RB

Paste BN Sports has assembled a talented team of prospects to chronicle their paths to the NFL draft. Today's entry is from Washington linebacker Shaq Thompson, who won the Paul Hornung Award as the nation's most versatile player and is a potential first-round draft pick.

I didn't realize how close Indianapolis was to Kentucky, or I probably would've just stayed there after the combine to pick up the Hornung award last week. It was great. I got welcomed to the club of the most versatile guys. I got to meet (Philadelphia Eagles cornerback) Brandon Boykin. Just being in the same sentence as those guys is humbling really. We saw Paul Hornung's highlights, and they're ridiculous.

The combine was good, too. Seeing a lot of different people and meeting a lot of GMs and coaches and getting that experience that you wanted when you were young — it's basically like a dream come true. The process was wonderful. A little bit tiring, but it was good.

The question I kept hearing from teams in the interviews was, 'What would you rather play: running back or linebacker?' They wanted to make sure my heart was on defense and not on offense. I've just got to stand my ground really and keep telling everybody that I want to play defense, and especially the linebacker position.

The drills went well. I got comfortable, calmed everything down and went in my mode. But I was a little bit nervous running the 40, because I've never worked out with that big of a crowd before. I was shocked by my time. The unofficial 4.72 didn't make sense. I know I'm faster than a 4.6 — it's just the little errors that I had in the first 10 yards. That's what really messed me up.

I'll take a couple weeks off to get my legs back and get my body back to healthy so I can get the full potential during my workouts. Then I'm going to work somewhere in Anaheim with my cousin, Peyton Thompson, to get ready for my pro day April 2. I'm going to do the 40 and the drills. I might do the shuttle, too.

I'm going to see my family towards the end of March. For now, I have one of my college teammates, Danny Shelton, here (as well as) my boys Arik Armstead and Taiwan Jones, Dean Marlow, Kevin White and Alani Fua — all people I train with.

Other than that, I just stay at home and relax and watch TV, get off my feet. I don't like to be outside in the sun. I just started watching this show called Fixer Upper on HGTV. Two couples can make a house that looks like garbage turn into a nice, beautiful place. I like seeing how stuff can go from nothing to something.

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Follow Shaq Thompson on Twitter at @ShaqThompson_7