It’s an ego thing.

You become a high school star playing quarterback. You get recruited to big-time college programs. You start in front of a home crowd of 90,000 people for four years. You become the face of your program. You rack up program records and get ready to move on to the NFL.

And NOW, you’re supposed to just stop playing quarterback?

It can’t be an easy thing to do. Everything you’ve ever been taught suggests that you should drown out the skeptics and do what you’ve always done. That is, show them you can play quarterback in the NFL.

But Tommy Armstrong made that tough decision. He realized that if there was a path for him to play in the NFL at quarterback, it had way more roadblocks than the receiver path had.

So now, Nebraska’s all-time leader in passing yards, passing completions, passing touchdowns, total offense, total TDs responsible for, career starts by a quarterback, 250-yard passing games, 300-yard passing games and 300-yard total offense games is switching things up.

He’ll try and make an NFL roster as a receiver. If recent history suggests anything, Armstrong made the right call.

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Let’s call Armstrong what he was. For four years, he was a decent college quarterback. He made incredible plays with his feet, but he turned the ball over far too much for someone hoping to play that position at the next level. The odds don’t favor a guy that completes 51 percent of his passes in is fourth year on the job.

Armstrong was most dangerous when he was past the line of scrimmage. Few quarterbacks in the country could turn upfield and accelerate like he could. That ability is Armstrong’s biggest asset moving forward.

He spent the last few months training with Nebraska receivers coach Keith Williams, and based on the results of Armstrong’s pro day, it paid off.

Longtime NFL.com analyst Gil Brandt wrote that Armstrong tested “incredibly well” after watching him in Lincoln last week. A 4.55-second 40-yard dash, a 37 1/2-inch vertical (that would’ve tied for fourth among combine receivers) and a 6.76-second three-cone drill were all solid numbers for any receiver.

Those numbers showed an important thing ahead of the draft. Armstrong isn’t just fast for a quarterback. He’s just fast.

As Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt pointed out, that’s not a bad foundation for a guy making a major position switch to have.

Armstrong is hardly the first college quarterback to make a position switch in the NFL. He’s hardly the first B1G quarterback to do so.

The most recent example, of course, was Braxton Miller, who made the move a year earlier in his career than Armstrong did. Even though Miller didn’t put up big numbers in his one year as a college receiver (H-back, really), he was still a third-round pick in the 2016 NFL draft.

Remember Denard Robinson? People forget that the former Michigan quarterback was invited to the combine as a receiver, and he later switched to running back. Still, that helped Robinson get drafted and ultimately carve out a role with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

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Then there’s Terrelle Pryor. The former Ohio State star should be the poster child for quarterbacks playing different positions in the NFL. Pryor made the unconventional mid-career switch, and now, he’s considered one of the top young wideouts in the league.

Armstrong’s case is different than those three examples, but his hurdles are the same. Route-running isn’t an overnight skill even for someone trying to learn it in college, much less someone hoping to make an NFL roster spot. He’ll also have to develop as a blocker having little to no experience with that in his career.

And oh, there’s also the simple skill of catching footballs at full speed. That’s something even 10-year veterans struggle with at times. Armstrong will have major strides to make in that department, especially if he projects as a slot back.

Well, he did make that catch that one time.

Even with all of those challenges ahead, Armstrong could still have an NFL career as a receiver.

His work ethic and physical tools have never been in question. He even dropped down from 230 to 215 pounds ahead of Nebraska’s pro day. That could help him become a third-down specialist out of the backfield. In today’s NFL, which has more specific roles for skill players than ever, Armstrong has a much better shot of making a roster.

Credit Armstrong for making a practical, adult decision. Pryor said something on the Dan Patrick Show last week that applies to Armstrong’s situation.

“You’ve got to think about it from a life perspective,” Pryor said. “Everybody has their goals and something they want to do in life. Then after you’re doing something for so long, you just realize, you know what? It’s not gonna work. Nobody’s going to give you the right chance. The chances aren’t there.

“It’s hard, but you’ve got to check your ego. There’s a lot of egos flying around. I had to check myself and say, ‘You know what? It’s not working at QB. I had a good run. At least I tried, but let’s try something else and keep me playing on the field playing the game I love to death.'”

Armstrong checked his ego. He’ll likely have to check it again when he’s doing whatever he can just to make a 53-man roster.

Whether that happens or not, Armstrong already made the smartest audible of his career.