MOBILE, Ala. -- As players run through practice drills under the watchful eyes of NFL coaches in preparation for Saturday’s Senior Bowl, they’re also undergoing an extended job interview.
Between practices and media sessions, players meet with team representatives, such as Bob Welton of the Browns, an area scout in charge of looking at football players from colleges in the Western half of the country.
“The big thing for scouts, at this game, because you’ve got all of the top players, is the interview process,” Welton said on Cleveland Browns Daily. “When we go in the fall into a school, we can talk to players, but out of respect for that program and the coaches, they have plenty of other things to worry about. We don’t really get to talk with the kids. You get information from the coaches and academic advisors, but you really don’t get that face time with the actual player. It’s not so much what they say, it’s how they say it.”
Welton specifically remembered sitting down with current Browns defensive back, T.J. Ward, and how that interaction helped the team learn more about the hard-hitting safety from the University of Oregon.
“A couple years ago, I interviewed T.J. Ward and I didn’t know much about him personally, just from the school,” Welton said. “In the first five minutes, I remember thinking, ‘This is a really tough guy.’ You could just tell and we all know, that’s how he is.”
While Welton had success with Ward, he has also seen where players did not treat Senior Bowl week like an extended job interview.
“In the personnel department, we want to see as much as we can, but that’s the game,” Welton said. “I can think of two or three players over the years that wouldn’t meet with us, weren’t easy to get a hold of or never returned calls. That had a lasting impression on you that this kid had trouble keeping a meeting time. That tells a lot too about the kid.”
When sitting down to do an interview, Welton looks for how players answer questions, whether they are on time and what type of attitude they have during the session. He likes the opportunity to look a player in the eyes and see if they are being honest about their goals for the future.
“Sometimes, in this process and at the Combine, they’ve been coached up by agents and coached up by so many people around them,” Welton said. “I like it here because they’ve only had that exposure for a couple weeks and they’re still a little more natural. At the Combine, sometimes, that can change. You really pick up on if the kid’s being genuine. For the most part, if it’s definitely a red flag either way, that definitely holds true.”
