McLaurin on challenge of catching a football from a giant cannon originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
In his brief NFL career, Terry McLaurin has hauled in passes from Case Keenum, Dwayne Haskins, Colt McCoy, Kyle Allen, Alex Smith and Taylor Heinicke.
And, thanks to an advertisement he did for Team Milk recently, he's also caught a ball from an enormous cannon.
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Based on the footage, the cannon had a, well, cannon for an arm, too.
When reflecting on the experience after practice on Wednesday, McLaurin explained that, much like any other quarterback-wide receiver relationship, he and the large apparatus needed a bit of time develop their chemistry at first.
"I went out there and it took more than one take," McLaurin said in a press conference. "It took a little bit, because it took about seven minutes per try to reload the cannon when you didn't catch it."
The 26-year-old recalled that the cannon's tosses would fly to the right, then after some recalibration, they'd be laid out too far to the left. They also came at a speed that was difficult to adjust to.
Finally, however, each part of the operation was dialed in exactly how it needed to be — except for the mega-talented wideout.
"We finally got it and then it hit me and I dropped it," McLaurin said. "I was like, 'Dang, now I feel bad,' because I'm like, 'All these people are out here and I'm supposed to catch this ball and now it's hit me in the chest.'"
Fortunately, the always-mature McLaurin wasn't rattled by the mistake, and the cannon went right back to his top target like any elite QB would.
"We finally got another opportunity, it was a perfect shot and I caught it," McLaurin said.
McLaurin, who's also appeared in ads for Pepsi and Eastern Motors, overall enjoyed participating in this particular shoot. Having the opportunity to show his personality and what he's like "outside of the helmet" is special to him, even if it opens him up to some ridicule from his teammates.
"It comes up from time to time," McLaurin said of players' appearances in off-field content. "Guys will be like, 'I see you, you've got that money.'"
However, Washington's star also gets that running routes for an enormous piece of machinery or slugging soda is only possible if he's still delivering in his primary gig.
That certainly hasn't been an issue for him or Washington yet, which is precisely how he'd like it to remain.
"Keep the main thing the main thing," McLaurin said in reference to his NFL duties. "This is the breadwinner."
