Getting a job playing in the NFL is nothing like getting an entry-level job in any other field.
At the NFL Combine, Texas A&M receiver KC Concepcion was headed into a formal interview with the Philadelphia Eagles. And Philly hit the draft prospect with an exercise he’d never seen before. The Eagles had a machine that dropped three different-colored foam batons. As the batons fell, a coach called out the color that Concepcion needed to catch — and the hand he needed to use to catch it. Left hand blue, right hand red.
Good thing he’s an All-American receiver. Concepcion managed to catch four of five pairings.
“That right there was fun,” he told me at the Adidas “Pro Day” in Portland last month.
At the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, Texas A&M receiver KC Concepcion showed his catching prowess on the field and in team interviews. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Such is the unique, demanding and sometimes bizarre nature of the NFL draft process, which includes workouts, medical checks and lots of interviews.
When it comes to the interviews, which come one after another, Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson and Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza have the perfect type of mind for the pre-draft process. The same is true of Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, whose interview with one team “was kind of boring with how easy it was for him,” per a scout in the room.
Of course, no matter who it is, these prospects are nervous stepping into a room with NFL evaluators, particularly for the first time.
“The first one — a little nervous, a little anxious. But after that one, it was just rolling,” Ohio State edge Arvell Reese told me in Portland.
Often, prospects can get into a groove. There’s a routine from one team’s interview to the next. And the prospects will answer many of the same questions during their Top 30 meetings. (Each NFL team can invite up to 30 prospects to their facility to conduct interviews, medical checks and on-field workouts.)
“It kind of gets kind of repetitive — just answering the same questions,” Arizona State receiver Jordyn Tyson told me in Portland. “Shoot, you’re talking about yourself, so nobody knows you better than yourself. But, yeah, I’d say it’s going pretty good. Just trying not to shoot myself in the foot and trying to just leave it all on their end.”
Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson missed drills at the combine due to a lingering hamstring injury, so he wanted to nail the interviews. (Photo by Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
For the on-field portion, there are the freak athletes whose measurables are perfect, whether it’s at the combine in Indianapolis or at pro day or any of the other venues where players meet with teams. Count Downs and Reese in that category. Let’s also throw in Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq and Ducks safety Dillon Thieneman, who absolutely crushed the workout portion of the combine.
Not everyone has it so easy.
“It’s all mental,” a former NFL first-round pick told me. “[You’re in Indianapolis] for days, then you definitely don’t get on discipline till the tip. … I graded out greater as a result of some guys simply couldn’t deal with all the times stacked on one another.”
Each measurement issues — even, because it seems, the issues you possibly can’t precisely measure.
The expertise is a microcosm of what may be so horrible and so thrilling about these liminal months when soccer gamers are “prospects” — not school soccer gamers or NFL gamers. They get measured. They get interviewed with out finish by groups, by media members and by advertising and marketing reps.
The invasive probing transcends the common job interview.
“They’re doing background checks in your childhood stuff, so at this level, your complete life is form of a job interview,” Downs informed me. “So I am unable to say this three-month course of is my job interview. Your complete life is just about a job interview.”
Right here’s what we realized in regards to the course of whereas talking with a number of of the draft’s high prospects — and among the people who find themselves getting ready and evaluating them.
Getting the physique proper for the exercises
Excel Sports activities Administration has a fitness center in Southern California the place Washington receiver Denzel Boson spent weeks coaching for the mix and his professional day, with guide coaches on-site to offer complete preparation. Virtually all of the seemingly first-rounders spend their time coaching at their company’s facility.
After that, the draft course of is about doing every thing besides taking part in soccer: watching it, drilling it, discussing it.
There is a clear dichotomy between the offseason drills that NFL veterans are doing and those that the incoming rookies are doing. Have a look at Instagram, the place you possibly can see present NFL gamers operating practical drills to assist them enhance at their place. After which have a look at the mix, the place you see a set of drills which have rightfully earned the occasion the nickname “the Underwear Olympics.”
As antiquated as these basic drills might sound, they measure a sure type of athleticism, which draft prospects can and may hone previous to displaying up in Indianapolis. In order that’s the place their consideration shifts: studying correct type for the 40-yard sprint, the broad soar and the three-cone drill.
Downs, nonetheless, pushed again on that concept.
“I am making an attempt to get able to go play soccer, so that is what my exercises are tailor-made to,” he informed me in March. “Simply attempt to make it possible for after I get to camp I am able to play ball. That is crucial factor, in order that’s actually what I am targeted on.”
However Downs is an anomaly, a surefire top-10 decide. Not everybody can get away with that mentality.
Carnell Tate, the consensus high receiver within the draft and Downs’ school teammate, mentioned he could be doing new drills, however he is maintaining the identical routine he had at Ohio State.
“It’s mainly my school routine,” Tate informed me. “It’s simply, I am not in school no extra at Ohio State.”
For a lot of gamers, draft prep extends past their coaching routine.
Miami All-American edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. mentioned he’s chopping out fried meals and extra sugar from his weight loss plan. And he’s extra regimented about when he eats — altering his meal schedule. It helps that he’s employed a non-public chef.
“It is extra constant,” Bain informed me in Portland in March. “It’s one thing I type of tighten up on, and being just a little bit extra critical about my strategy, quite than simply doing it right here and there and type of slacking off.”
Getting the thoughts proper for the interviews
Essentially the most common components of the interviews are the movie research and set up.
NFL groups will put up movie from a participant’s school profession and quiz him on what went proper or unsuitable. After which the gamers will typically have to study a sequence of performs: the set up. Typically, they get these performs onsite. Typically, they’ll get a small playbook forward of a gathering. The gamers must show they’ve retained the data, as greatest they will.
“This course of is all about me,” Tate informed me. “Groups watch your movie and see what you keep out of your earlier faculty and see what you can have completed higher. After which they only pick like, ‘Why did this work? Why did not this work?’ I’ve simply been watching my movie and ensuring I do know my play out and in — figuring out why I tousled right here or figuring out why I did one thing good right here.
“After which they only set up a play for me — or a pair performs — and see what I can retain from that assembly, after which go put it on the sector or go placed on the board.”
Ohio State’s Carnell Tate is the consensus high receiver within the 2026 draft. (Photograph by Jason Mowry/Getty Photos)
Gamers lean on completely different sources to arrange themselves for his or her interviews. There are formal interviews on the NFL Mix and Prime-30 visits. However casual interviews occur all through the method, with evaluators putting up a dialog with a prospect at an all-star sport (just like the Senior Bowl), on the mix and at their professional day.
Gamers may even get a random cellphone name sometimes. Groups could contact a vast variety of incoming rookies as much as 3 times per week, for as much as one hour at a time, per NFL guidelines. Groups are usually not allowed to contact school gamers till they’ve declared for the draft — or are now not eligible to maintain taking part in in school.
When groups can lastly communicate with gamers, any morsel of knowledge might show vital. Which means an interview is lurking behind each nook.
“I feel you’ve simply obtained to be your self,” Arvell Reese informed me. “It is arduous to placed on the act and it is arduous to lie. So I really feel like being your self is the best factor to do. So after I’m assembly with all of the groups, I simply be myself.”
As greatest they will, prospects put together completely.
Take Boston, for instance. He frolicked with Excel guide Ricky Proehl, who performed receiver within the NFL for 17 years and is now the top coach of the UFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks. Proehl labored with Boston on and off the sector to verify he had the instruments to tackle the trials of the draft course of. That features interview prep, drill prep and professional day design.
“Groups carry you in for an official go to,” Proehl informed me by cellphone. “They need to see how a lot you possibly can retain. They will give their offense, they’re going to give formations, ideas or routes, various things, after which they need to see how a lot you possibly can retain. So we’ll go over completely different eventualities.”
When not teaching the UFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks, Ricky Proehl prepares NFL prospects for the draft. He was a third-round decide in 1990 and performed receiver within the NFL for 17 years. (Photograph by Dilip Vishwanat/UFL/Getty Photos)
Boston mentioned he and Proehl can’t go over each NFL system. However they will work to construct elementary expertise and ideas round receiver positions, offensive formations and defensive coverages. The receiver studied on his iPad with a magic pencil to work by means of the defenses. He and Proehl made a cheat sheet of all of the defenses to evaluation.
“You may’t count on each staff to be the identical or have the identical terminology, however you will get the foundations type of down in your head with regards to the O’s and the X’s and all these various things,” Boston informed me.
Within the case of among the high Ohio State prospects, they could work with an company guide. However additionally they have easy accessibility to a former NFL head coach. Matt Patricia, who served because the Lions’ head coach from 2018 to 2020, is now the Buckeyes’ defensive coordinator.
“Coach Patricia did a terrific job giving us the time we would have liked to make it possible for we’re able to exit and articulate the best way that we have to. So lots of appreciation for him for locating the time to try this,” Downs informed me. “Mock interviews. Zooms in regards to the movie they’re going to indicate and the questions they’re going to ask. Attempting to get these alternatives to reply the questions on the take a look at earlier than they’re requested.”
Ryan Day on teaching Ohio State; Caleb Downs, Carnell Tate’s potential
[2026 NFL Draft: Top 150 Overall Prospects]
The interviews will lengthen past soccer. On the subject of attending to know a prospect as an individual, groups have completely different philosophies and methodologies, notably when addressing delicate points or authorized issues.
One scout informed me he’d save the tough questions for when he felt like he knew a prospect, largely as a result of he didn’t assume he’d get an sincere reply previous to that time. That scout mentioned: “[A prospect will say] far more if he is aware of you care. … You’ll get every thing you need by establishing relationships.” One other scout informed me he’d ask the tough inquiries to see if gamers would lie — and, generally, they might, which the scout knew from his analysis.
For the most-prepared prospects, the chalk discuss is definitely the spotlight of the draft expertise. They get to satisfy among the smartest minds in soccer and decide their brains.
“It has been superior,” Downs informed me. “Truthfully, I really feel like my thoughts is what separates me, and simply having the ability to share that and have conversations about issues. And likewise simply studying is at all times such an enormous factor for me, simply placing myself in positions to study. And there is not any greater soccer than the NFL, so it is a terrific alternative to study from the coaches which can be there and attempt to broaden my thoughts.”
For prospects, there is not any higher feeling than nailing an interview.
“I simply really feel like figuring out you crushed a gathering,” Washington operating again Jonah Coleman informed me at Adidas Professional Day. “After you come out of a gathering or after you get off the Zoom, simply figuring out that you just crushed it — that has been one of the best half.”
[Inside Adidas Rookie Pro Day with Fernando Mendoza, Other Top Prospects]
Anticipate the surprising.
The draft course of is notorious for producing absurdity and even inappropriate habits. Fortunately, that apply has grown much less pervasive. However there’s nonetheless loads of silliness.
It was one factor for folks to debate over whether or not Joe Burrow’s hand measurement mattered. (Which occurred!) It’s one other factor for evaluators to ask about sexual orientation, homicide weapons or … whether or not a participant finds his mom enticing.
One former NFL participant mentioned that, when he interviewed with the Cleveland Browns, they took the tape from his junior season quite than his senior 12 months — and solely requested about his worst performs. It was a painful and unnecessarily contentious assembly. What was that scout’s intention? Unclear.
However on the plus aspect — after the professional day and mix — a draft prospect may by no means need to run the 40-yard sprint once more. Or catch foam batons dropped from a machine.
“The professional day’s over, mix’s over, you are not gonna have to coach for that anymore. Now it’s again to soccer,” Denzel Boston informed me.
That’ll come after the draft — when prospects lastly turn into gamers once more.
