Who Interviewed Well/Poorly at the Combine?

Who Interviewed Well/Poorly at the Combine?
Updated March 4, 2016
By Charlie Campbell – @draftcampbell

After the 2016 NFL Scouting Combine, I reached out to sources across the league from a variety of teams to survey who were the players who did well in the Combine interviews and who were the players who interviewed poorly. An interesting list came together. Also, it is worth noting that beauty is in the eye of the beholder to a degree; some teams said a player didn’t do well, while others said the opposite.

Players Who Interviewed Well:

USC outside linebacker Su’A Cravens
Ohio State offensive tackle Taylor Decker
TCU wide receiver Josh Doctson
Notre Dame wide receiver Will Fuller (multiple teams)
Alabama running back Derrick Henry
Stanford tight end Austin Hooper (multiple teams)
UCLA outside linebacker Myles Jack
Alabama center Ryan Kelly
North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz (multiple teams)
Florida State defensive back Jalen Ramsey (multiple teams)
Notre Dame cornerback KeiVarae Russell
Notre Dame left tackle Ronnie Stanley
Ohio State wide receiver Michael Thomas
Ole Miss left tackle Laremy Tunsil (multiple teams)

Mixed Feedback:

Ohio State defensive end Joey Bosa
Pitt wide receiver Tyler Boyd
Cal quarterback Jared Goff (some teams said poor; others said he did well)
Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg
Arkansas tight end Hunter Henry
Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch

Players Who Interviewed Poorly:

Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook
Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott (multiple teams)
Indiana running back Jordan Howard
Ole Miss defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche (multiple teams)
Texas defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway

Longer Explanations:

Teams said that Ole Miss left tackle Laremy Tunsil was polite, laid back and confident. They said he is a smart kid who has been coached well. He isn’t perfectly clean, but definitely is smart enough to not get in trouble.

A player teams love and said was very good was Florida State defensive back Jalen Ramsey. Sources from multiple teams said he is an “awesome kid.” Of all the prospects, Ramsey had the most vehement positive feedback.

Ole Miss defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche needed to interview well to offset his off-the-field concerns, but he did a poor job according to multiple teams. As one source said, “[Nkemdiche] acted like a stoner, and that he was too good for everyone.” Teams are very down on Nkemdiche and some said they won’t consider drafting him in any round.

Multiple teams said that Notre Dame wide receiver Will Fuller is a bright kid and knew his position well from an x’s-and-o’s standpoint. They feel he can learn to be an inside or outside pro receiver.

As I tweeted during the Combine, the Browns said that North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz was a stud in the interview room. Other teams echoed that. They said he is a bright, smart kid with excellent play recall.
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Cal quarterback Jared Goff got mixed reviews. Some teams said he did well and others said he did poorly. Sources said he did have good play recall.
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Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook disappointed teams from an x’s-and-o’s perspective. They felt that with his years of starting experience in a pro-style system, he would have done better, but he had bad recall on plays. He also didn’t show good knowledge of coverage, and didn’t ease the concerns about him as a teammate.
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Sources said that Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg has pretty good recall and knows coverage, and they like his tools. However, they would have liked him to make less excuses about some of the issues he had over the last two seasons.
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Teams say Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch is very far behind from an x’s-and-o’s perspective. Teams like his skill set and athletic upside, and they don’t think he’s a bad kid. But he hasn’t been taught much from a NFL scheme perspective coming from his college spread system. Sources felt that Lynch was behind the other early-round quarterbacks from an x’s-and-o’s standpoint.

Read more at http://walterfootball.com/nfldraftrumormill.php#2HEidCcvlK5zKPjS.99