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, you then 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 will be so horrible and so thrilling about these liminal months when soccer gamers are “prospects” — not faculty 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 typical job interview.
“They’re doing background checks in your childhood stuff, so at this level, your complete life is kind of a job interview,” Downs advised me. “So I can not 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 concerning the course of whereas talking with a number of of the draft’s prime prospects — and a few of the people who find themselves getting ready and evaluating them.
Getting the physique proper for the exercises
Excel Sports activities Administration has a health club 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 possible first-rounders spend their time coaching at their company’s facility.
After that, the draft course of is about doing all the pieces 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 working useful 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 normal drills may appear, they measure a sure form of athleticism, which draft prospects can and will hone previous to exhibiting up in Indianapolis. In order that’s the place their consideration shifts: studying correct type for the 40-yard sprint, the broad bounce 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 advised me in March. “Simply attempt to be sure that once I get to camp I am able to play ball. That is an important factor, in order that’s actually what I am centered on.”
However Downs is an anomaly, a surefire top-10 choose. Not everybody can get away with that mentality.
Carnell Tate, the consensus prime receiver within the draft and Downs’ faculty teammate, mentioned he is perhaps doing new drills, however he is preserving the identical routine he had at Ohio State.
“It’s mainly my faculty routine,” Tate advised me. “It’s simply, I am not in faculty 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 reducing out fried meals and extra sugar from his eating regimen. 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 advised me in Portland in March. “It’s one thing I form of tighten up on, and being a little bit bit extra severe about my method, moderately than simply doing it right here and there and form of slacking off.”
Getting the thoughts proper for the interviews
Probably the most common components of the interviews are the movie research and set up.
NFL groups will put up movie from a participant’s faculty profession and quiz him on what went proper or incorrect. After which the gamers will usually have to study a collection of performs: the set up. Generally, they get these performs onsite. Generally, they’ll get a small playbook forward of a gathering. The gamers should show they’ve retained the knowledge, as finest they will.
“This course of is all about me,” Tate advised me. “Groups watch your movie and see what you keep out of your earlier college and see what you could possibly have achieved higher. After which they simply 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 simply 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 sphere or go placed on the board.”
Ohio State’s Carnell Tate is the consensus prime receiver within the 2026 draft. (Picture by Jason Mowry/Getty Pictures)
Gamers lean on completely different sources to organize 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 placing 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 would possibly even get a random cellphone name every so often. 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 usually are not allowed to contact faculty gamers till they’ve declared for the draft — or are not eligible to maintain taking part in in faculty.
When groups can lastly communicate with gamers, any morsel of data may show necessary. Which means an interview is lurking behind each nook.
“I believe you’ve simply acquired to be your self,” Arvell Reese advised me. “It is exhausting to placed on the act and it is exhausting to lie. So I really feel like being your self is the simplest factor to do. So once I’m assembly with all of the groups, I simply be myself.”
As finest they will, prospects put together totally.
Take Boston, for instance. He hung out 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 sphere to verify he had the instruments to tackle the pains of the draft course of. That features interview prep, drill prep and professional day design.
“Groups convey you in for an official go to,” Proehl advised me by cellphone. “They need to see how a lot you possibly can retain. They will give their offense, they will 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 situations.”
When not teaching the UFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks, Ricky Proehl prepares NFL prospects for the draft. He was a third-round choose in 1990 and performed receiver within the NFL for 17 years. (Picture by Dilip Vishwanat/UFL/Getty Pictures)
Boston mentioned he and Proehl can’t go over each NFL system. However they will work to construct basic abilities and ideas round receiver positions, offensive formations and defensive coverages. The receiver studied on his iPad with a magic pencil to work by the defenses. He and Proehl made a cheat sheet of all of the defenses to evaluation.
“You’ll be able to’t anticipate each staff to be the identical or have the identical terminology, however you will get the principles form of down in your head in relation to the O’s and the X’s and all these various things,” Boston advised me.
Within the case of a few of the prime Ohio State prospects, they may work with an company guide. However additionally they have quick access 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 an incredible job giving us the time we wanted to be sure that we’re able to exit and articulate the way in which that we have to. So plenty of appreciation for him for locating the time to do this,” Downs advised me. “Mock interviews. Zooms concerning the movie they’re going to point out and the questions they’re going to ask. Making an attempt 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 prolong past soccer. Relating to 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 advised 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 all the pieces you need by establishing relationships.” One other scout advised me he’d ask the tough inquiries to see if gamers would lie — and, typically, they might, which the scout knew from his analysis.
For the most-prepared prospects, the chalk speak is definitely the spotlight of the draft expertise. They get to fulfill a few of the smartest minds in soccer and choose their brains.
“It has been superior,” Downs advised me. “Truthfully, I really feel like my thoughts is what separates me, and simply with the ability to share that and have conversations about issues. And in addition simply studying is all the time such an enormous factor for me, simply placing myself in positions to study. And there isn’t any greater soccer than the NFL, so it is an incredible alternative to study from the coaches which are there and attempt to broaden my thoughts.”
For prospects, there isn’t any higher feeling than nailing an interview.
“I simply really feel like figuring out you crushed a gathering,” Washington working again Jonah Coleman advised me at Adidas Professional Day. “After you come out of a gathering or after you get off the Zoom, simply figuring out that you simply crushed it — that has been the perfect half.”
[Inside Adidas Rookie Pro Day with Fernando Mendoza, Other Top Prospects]
Count on the surprising.
The draft course of is notorious for producing absurdity and even inappropriate habits. Fortunately, that observe 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 dimension 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 engaging.
One former NFL participant mentioned that, when he interviewed with the Cleveland Browns, they took the tape from his junior season moderately than his senior yr — 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 would possibly by no means must 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 advised me.
That’ll come after the draft — when prospects lastly turn out to be gamers once more.
