All Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles has to do is get this right. He simply has to make the right call at quarterback, make the right decision with the No. 1 pick, and then the Bears are on their way to being a contender.
To get it right, however, he has to solve the most inexact science in sports. He has to get a read on something that cannot be measured with a number in Indianapolis this week or on the football field.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in our ability to see talent on the field. The human being we’ve got to figure out,” Poles said last month. “Especially being a quarterback in this city, you’ve got to have it right. You’ve got to have toughness, you’ve got to have mental toughness, you’ve got to be able to block things out. So really, I’ve got to find out about the human beings.”
How is a player wired? What makes him tick? What kind of leader will he be? Can he rally a locker room?
How can he handle being the most important player in the building?
That fact-finding process has been underway for months for scouts of all 32 teams, but it ramps up at this week’s combine. For most coaching staffs, the 15-minute interviews in Indianapolis give them their first opportunity to talk to prospects.
For the Bears, Washington Commanders, New England Patriots, Atlanta Falcons, Minnesota Vikings and the rest of the teams who could be in play to draft their next starting quarterback, they’re all trying to find out everything there is to know about these prospects. USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, LSU’s Jayden Daniels and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy lead the group of players who will be more scrutinized for what they say — and what’s said about them — this week than anything they do on the field.
“I always feel like if you can sit down and look someone in the eyes and ask them the right questions, you can learn a lot,” Poles said.
The conversation starts with the Bears at No. 1, who have the unique situation of holding the keys to the draft and still having a quarterback in Justin Fields who would start elsewhere, if not in Chicago. That means it’s not only comparing prospect to prospect but the unknown of a rookie to a known commodity in Fields.
While Poles, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus and the rest of the GMs and coaches in need of a QB have their methods for trying to measure a player’s intangibles, four former executives spoke to The Athletic about how they would try to answer the unanswerable and get to know “the person.”
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“You’re always trying to minimize the risk, because that’s really what the draft is. It’s an exercise in risk management in the first place,” said ESPN’s Louis Riddick, a former executive in Washington and Philadelphia. “You’re trying to minimize the risk of you being wrong.”
The combine interview: ‘It’s a starting point’
In his introductory news conference, Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron echoed Poles’ emphasis on the upcoming quarterback evaluation.
“Getting to know the person,” he said. “And all these guys, everyone’s got a story. … What is the person like? How is that person going to be able to adjust and adapt to the next level here? So for me, the combine’s that first chance to start to see some people in person.”
There’s an irony in what this week means for Williams. If he even chooses to throw during QB drills, that performance won’t mean much. His private conversations with teams will get more attention.
But it’s still a tiny piece of the puzzle.
“It’s 15 minutes, and that’s just the 1 percent or 10 percent or whatever that’s going to happen with Caleb from here until draft time,” said NFL Network analyst Marc Ross, who worked in the personnel departments for the Eagles, Bills and Giants, where he was the vice president of player evaluation and director of college scouting….
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