15 minutes to glean telltale signs
Talent evaluators put stock in short meetings with potential draftees
INDIANAPOLIS — The highest drafted quarterback of John Fox’s career came sight unseen — even to the coach.
The Carolina Panthers selected Notre Dame star Jimmy Clausen seven years ago, but only after the presumed first- rounder fell to them at No. 48.
“Personally, I never even watched him, because he wasn’t a targeted guy for me in our predraft assignments,” Fox said at the NFL Scouting Combine this week. “But I can say now I would hope we draft someone that I’ve actually gotten a chance to watch.” That’s an understatement. Fox and his Bears assistants are spending the week interviewing college players, one of whom might be their quarterback at the future.
Fox called the 15- minute, private, nighttime meetings beneficial — “It’s hard to feel what a guy’s all about when you’re watching video,” he said — while general manager Ryan Pace compared them to speed dating.
Before a meeting, the Bears’ college scouting department will brief coaches on the prospect. After a short chat, coaches will ask quarterback prospects to draw plays on a whiteboard, or talk them through a clip of their film.
“You feel a guy when he comes in the room: Does he have that charisma? Does he have confidence? Is he naturally football- intelligent?” Pace said. “I know it’s only 15 minutes, but we have a plan in place to pull that quickly out.”
More than ever, agents prepare their clients for the meetings. That makes it more difficult to get to the core of a player’s personality, Denver Broncos executive vice president John Elway said.
“You can’t hide,” de,” said Elway, the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarter back who drafted Paxton Lynch inn the first round nd last year .“You put uta play up on the boardoard and ask them to explain the play or put some tape up there and havee them walk you through a play. You can genergenerally find out how much much they know about football.” Elway looks for competitiveness and toughness, too, though that’s harder to uncover in a meeting. “Fifteen minutes utes is actually kind of longer than you think,” Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. “You can get a lot of information out of them. You can talk to them about their offense. You know, ‘ Hey, what was going on in this game protection- wise? Are you directing the run game? Are you in chargec of this? How didd you handle this two- minute situation?’t ” Texas A& M quarterbackquarte Trevor Knight, w who said he spoke to the Bears Bears, said the whiteboard board sessions don’td lie. “You know w what you know,” he said. “That’s whatwh the coaches like to see, you comm communicate how you ran things in college and your ability to learn things.”
Elway said there’s probably not “a ready- made guy” in this year’s draft, while Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians sees “five to six really good arms” at the combine.
Teams must evaluate the nuances of those players.
“I can see his arm strength, I can see his feet, I can see him jump,” Arians said. “But the two things he plays with — his brain and his heart — they’re very hard to evaluate.”
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