Making big decisions, without making personal contact

Sir Purr

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Mar 16, 2019
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Otherwise, there was no Scouting Combine, no top 30 visits to team facilities, and limited exposure at pro days, with just three representatives per team allowed at each of the scripted workouts. That's it. And that's why teams are grabbing onto every shred of information they can find, however they can find it.


Panthers head coach Matt Rhule once crossed a guy off the draft board after a ride in an elevator, so human impressions matter to him, whether he can actually have them now or not. He laughed when asked about Eagles coach Nick Sirianni playing rock-paper-scissors with players during Zoom interviews, hoping to glean some insight from a child's game.


"I just talk to them," Rhule said with a laugh. "I saw that's what Nick said, it's interesting, I haven't done anything like that. To me, the tape drives who they are, their measurables and traits drive who they are, but what people say about them is really key.


"When you treat people well, people are excited talk about you."


Rhule will ask players who their favorite players are growing up, or which musical artist they might listen to if stuck on a desert island. He's not looking for recommendations (though perhaps he could use some, since he chose the Dave Matthews Band for eternity alone); he's looking for clues about how they think or what they value.


Of course, in discussing that, he also slipped back into coach-mode, saying: "At the end of the day, what they put on tape in college is most important to me, in terms of the way they play the game."


The players involved would likely love it to be that easy as well.


For guys used to operating in meeting rooms and huddles, the virtual getting-to-know-you stuff is hard, so they try to latch onto the familiar.


Recalling one of his favorite Zoom meetings, Alabama quarterback Mac Jones said: "That was a really great meeting. You know, we just talked football for like an hour straight. That's the best type of meeting for me is just talking ball."


For others, it's a chance to present their case. North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance had a limited sample of games to show coaches (he's only played one game in the last year, since FCS teams pushed their seasons back because of COVID-19), so he tried to use his interviews as a chance to prove he belonged at this level.


"The biggest challenge was the Combine being canceled," Lance said. "Not having that opportunity, that's something you dream of.


"Not being able to meet teams face to face (was challenging). Zoom meetings are, they're good. But not being able to shake hands and meet with them and get up on the board a couple of feet away from you would've been really cool, and an awesome experience."


Other top prospects try to keep the meetings simple, because when your film is very good, you have less to worry about.


"It's not nothing that you really have to worry about," Alabama wide receiver and Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith said. "You just go in and be yourself. At the end of the day, you're talking football. That's what I do. So it just feels like another day in the meeting room at Alabama."


Of course, it's not just another meeting.
 
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