The ultimate job interview: Prepping up for the NFL

INDIANAPOLIS — Rye Hewett is a special education teacher by training, but she can do a pretty convincing impression of an NFL executive or a sports reporter when necessary.

For years, she’s been randomly firing questions at her fiance, James Williams, to help prepare the Washington State running back for the NFL.

The couple, Williams said, can be anywhere when the grilling begins.

“She’s real good at doing it,” Williams said.

Those mock interviews proved helpful last week when Williams met with actual NFL teams at the scouting combine. Beyond 40-yard dash times and three-cone drills, the league’s annual combine, which concludes Monday, is viewed as the ultimate job interview for players hoping to be drafted in April.

And like any job interview, prospects can come rigorously prepared — leaving teams to judge whether a potential draft pick is being genuine or is just well-prepared.

“I don’t believe they’re rehearsed as people say,” Redskins president Bruce Allen said.

“Anybody can fool anybody for 15 minutes,’ Denver Broncos coach Vic Fangio said.

Interviews range from the informal to the formal. For the latter, teams are only allowed to meet with a player for 15 minutes. Informals don’t have a time limit, but they’re typically just one-on-one interviews compared to a group of coaches and executives. Eastern Michigan’s Maxx Crosby, for instance, said he met with a New England Patriots scout for an hour.

Regardless of the format, many players spend hours trying to prepare themselves for the questions they may face.

Left tackle Tyler Roemer spent six hours one day with a few consultants at EXOS, a training center in Phoenix. There was a lot to go over. One trainer briefed Roemer on everything that could be asked — going as far as to give the 20-year-old a packet of 50 questions.

The lessons don’t end there, either. Prospects are also coached up and given advice on how to answer. “Short and sweet and straight to the point,” Roemer said he was told.

In linebacker D’Andre Walker’s case, the Georgia product talked with a number of former general managers to discuss what he should expect. How did that happen? Well, that’s what agents are for — Walker’s agent arranged the meetings.

Some players have to be ready to address their baggage. Last year, Roemer was first suspended and later removed from San Diego State. Teams wanted to know exactly what happened, he said.

“When I did my interview prep, I told them that I would tell any team that’s willing to talk to me that I would tell them personally because I don’t feel like it is something that needs to be discussed publicly,” Roemer said. “I can clarify it wasn’t failed drug tests. It wasn’t anything anybody in the media has proclaimed.

“It was just a difference of opinion with my coach. That’s about it.”

So, how do NFL teams tell if a player is being authentic?

Fangio relies on a classic method — using his “gut” to sift through answers. The same goes for Cleveland Browns coach Freddie Kitchens, though he will test players by showing them their film and asking about specifics. If the player says they’re supposed to be doing one thing on a particular play and the film shows something different, then that’s a red flag.

“You’ll be wondering, ’Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?’” Kitchens said.

Failing to be accountable is a sure-fire way to tank an interview, Redskins coach Jay Gruden said. Gruden wants players to own up to moments in their life — especially if the instances have been well-documented.

“There’s been a couple (players) in the past that have killed themselves in these 15-minute interviews,” Gruden said. “Not many.”

Teams at the combine are well-known for pushing the boundaries — resorting to unconventional, and occasionally controversial, tactics to see how a player will respond. In 2016, cornerback Eli Apple told reporters an Atlanta Falcons coach asked him if he was gay.

This year, UNC-Charlotte’s Nate Davis said he went in for a handshake in a team meeting, only for him to be punched in the chest. “He was like, ’You have a soft chest,’ and I was like, ’OK’ and we just kept it going,” the offensive lineman said.

Roemer found his training for the process helpful, saying the questions he faced were “spot on” for what he was told. Williams, too, said he could predict the questions ahead of time.

Not every player goes through a formal training process to be prepared for interviews at the combine. Alabama’s Christian Miller said he was comfortable with his past media training to know how to address questions, as well as observing his father, a local television anchor in South Carolina.

But some can’t help but think about it. Even when Williams’ fiancee wasn’t asking him questions, the running back tried to envision scenarios in down moments.

“I been preparing myself,” Williams said. “I’ll go over it in my head whenever I don’t have anything, right before I go to sleep I look up in the sky and think about it.”