Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Commanders Today Podcast. I'm Julie Donaldson.
Speaker 1: We are less than two weeks away from this year's
Speaker 1: NFL Draft out in Las Vegas, Nevada. Head coach Ron
Speaker 1: Rivera and company are hard at work preparing for the
Speaker 1: team six picks, the first of which coming eleventh overall.
Speaker 1: Washington has spent their previous two first round picks on
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the ball. Will that be the
Speaker 1: case again? This draft our logan Paulson sat down with
Speaker 1: the head coach to learn more about the strategy behind
Speaker 1: the draft process. Coach, last time, I got to talk
Speaker 1: to us at the combine, and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of fans think that's like the start of draft season,
Speaker 1: which it is, but you guys work on it year round.
Speaker 1: How is the post combine process for your Pro Day's
Speaker 1: top thirty visits? What do those things give you that
Speaker 1: maybe you don't get at the combine? Well, I think
Speaker 1: probably the biggest thing that happens when you go to
Speaker 1: the combine, you know, you do the speed dating thing
Speaker 1: twenty minut to talk to a guy and can you
Speaker 1: move on to the next player. Now, once you get
Speaker 1: into this phase of it, there's an opportunity to really
Speaker 1: get to know these guys, not just on tape, not
Speaker 1: just on Washington and workout, or not just in that
Speaker 1: twenty minute speed dating. Now as an opportunity that you
Speaker 1: guys that you're really interested, guys that you're intrigued by,
Speaker 1: our guys that you want to know more about. You
Speaker 1: can go spend time with them and go watch them
Speaker 1: work out. You can send coaches, you can send scouts
Speaker 1: to dig a little bit more. And then we have
Speaker 1: the thirty visits bring a number of the guys in
Speaker 1: that you even want to get to know even more about,
Speaker 1: or guys that you want to have a medical check
Speaker 1: on with your own doctors. So this is an opportunity
Speaker 1: for us to dive in as to who these guys
Speaker 1: are as not just football players, not just as athletes,
Speaker 1: but as young men as well. Yeah, as a player,
Speaker 1: I'm not that familiar with the thirty visits. I didn't
Speaker 1: go on one. What are you doing with them on
Speaker 1: these days? Obviously? The combine you said, it's that speed dating,
Speaker 1: you get film, you get all these different kind of
Speaker 1: structured elements. What's different? I mean they're here all day.
Speaker 1: What do you do right? Well, what they do is
Speaker 1: they'll come in the meet with different people as far
Speaker 1: as we're concerned. They'll meet with position coaches, they'll meet
Speaker 1: with um, the coordinators, they'll meet with me. Then they'll
Speaker 1: also meet with our Strength and Condition and they'll meet
Speaker 1: with our director Player Development, and they'll they'll meet with
Speaker 1: our our our sports psychologists. Okay, just an opportunity for
Speaker 1: them to just meet, mingle and mix with the different
Speaker 1: groups of people as well. UM, They'll they'll they'll they'll
Speaker 1: meet with some of our interns just because they're picking
Speaker 1: them up or just because they're helping them with all
Speaker 1: their travel needs and everything like that. So everybody that's
Speaker 1: that's here in this building will or could have a
Speaker 1: chance to help us get to know who these young
Speaker 1: men are. And do you find that players are different
Speaker 1: at the thirty visits than they are at the combine?
Speaker 1: Are they more relaxed or like? Well, that's what you
Speaker 1: try to do, is you try to create a positive
Speaker 1: atmosphere for them to come in and really kind of
Speaker 1: let their hair down, be very candid about about things
Speaker 1: and and helps us to really understand even more so
Speaker 1: than who they are. Right, And I've been on some
Speaker 1: different teams over the course of my career, and some
Speaker 1: people use these thirty for these top thirty visits as
Speaker 1: a way to kind of mislead other teams. Is there
Speaker 1: a little bit of games someship going on here or
Speaker 1: is it? These are all just purely evaluations. Now these
Speaker 1: are purely valuable. So again, um, you know, it is
Speaker 1: hard because I do get some people say, oh, you
Speaker 1: want to throw them off, but you know what, we
Speaker 1: really want to get to know them because again, you're
Speaker 1: about to make a serious investment, right and you have
Speaker 1: to know the ins and outs of who these these
Speaker 1: these young men are. And so that's something that I
Speaker 1: think because you know, obviously teams do use these to
Speaker 1: kind of throw people off the scent. How do you
Speaker 1: establish pure draft value because obviously, like you have your evaluations,
Speaker 1: but you have to know what other teams are valuing.
Speaker 1: How do you work that out in this process where
Speaker 1: everyone's trying to mislead everybody. It's no, it's a hack
Speaker 1: of a question though, just because of the fact that
Speaker 1: people do see things differently. Yeah, right, you know, it
Speaker 1: goes back to that that old saying about you know,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna buy it, you're gonna buy a baseball card,
Speaker 1: you know, and it says, well, I want ten dollars
Speaker 1: a work ten dollars you know, right, Yes, if you're
Speaker 1: only willing to spend five, then that's what it is. Well,
Speaker 1: somebody may say, well he's not a first round right,
Speaker 1: you may say he is. Well, who's right? Who's wrong?
Speaker 1: The only time tells. I mean that's the truth, because
Speaker 1: you don't know if you spend a draft pick on
Speaker 1: a guy, if this guy's gonna be that guy. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: so everything's everything's a gamble, everything's a crapshoot. I mean
Speaker 1: because if if this, if if this was a perfect science, okay,
Speaker 1: then everybody would pick properly. I played with with Richard Denny,
Speaker 1: who was a twelfth round pick back in the day. Wow,
Speaker 1: you know that's the thing you tell people is so
Speaker 1: so everybody says, oh, you guys were smart for draft
Speaker 1: to him. Yeah, we have been smart way to take
Speaker 1: him in the right. So this is an inexact science.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's about fit because some guys may go
Speaker 1: to a team and four years later he's gone, and
Speaker 1: then he goes somewhere else and he prospers, and he
Speaker 1: goes Oh, well, why is it? Well, because it's not
Speaker 1: fit's a big thing. It is a real legitimate thing,
Speaker 1: which you know, I mean, if you don't fit an offense,
Speaker 1: you know, you're not gonna play a lot, You're not
Speaker 1: gonna get opportunities Austin, you fit an offense. And guess
Speaker 1: what they're doing. They're throwing the ball to the tight
Speaker 1: instead of making them a blocker. Yeah right, that's not
Speaker 1: that's not me, coach, that's not me. So are there
Speaker 1: any things that you do to kind of mitigate that
Speaker 1: the risk? You know what I mean? Is it the interview?
Speaker 1: Is it the like? What is it? I think, Well,
Speaker 1: we do a combination things. Obviously, our scouts, you know,
Speaker 1: they they go and they collect names for the future
Speaker 1: as well, not just about the guys that are there,
Speaker 1: but they're collecting names. They're trying to figure out who's
Speaker 1: guys that they've got to watch, and they'll watch guys
Speaker 1: for the next few years as well. So it's not
Speaker 1: just about coming in and you know, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: these twenty guys are possible draftable guys. It's also thinking
Speaker 1: a little bit ahead off. So they start this process
Speaker 1: and they'll have notes that they'll go back and they'll
Speaker 1: refer to as they start watching guys. So we get
Speaker 1: very in depth reports from this group. Um, we have
Speaker 1: a group of our of our of our top guys
Speaker 1: that are always out there, you know, starting with Marty
Speaker 1: Hernie and starting with Eric Stokes, you know, and and
Speaker 1: Gribbs and and and then our national scouts. I mean,
Speaker 1: these guys are the ones that really dig and dive
Speaker 1: even deeper than everybody else because you know, they're focusing
Speaker 1: on the now, right, they're the ones that focus on
Speaker 1: this year's draft more so than than than the area
Speaker 1: scouts I see. Yeah, And so like for me, for example,
Speaker 1: like if I watch a receiver, you know, and I
Speaker 1: see a receiver that doesn't block, he slides down my
Speaker 1: board because I question his ability, his passion, his love
Speaker 1: of the game. Do you have anything that you look
Speaker 1: at when you're watching film, Well, when I watch tape,
Speaker 1: and receiver is a good place to start, because you know,
Speaker 1: it's not just about catching them all. It's not just
Speaker 1: about running routes. But it's, like you said, it's also
Speaker 1: about how are you fitting into the offense. Because if
Speaker 1: you're a guy that doesn't run his routes really hard
Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah, okay, yeah, that's a little bit
Speaker 1: of an indicator. Because if I'm off of safety, I'm
Speaker 1: going back and all sudden I see that the X
Speaker 1: receiver's kind of jogging off. It tells me, you know,
Speaker 1: he's not involved, So I'm gonna look over here, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna look away from him. Well that's not a plus,
Speaker 1: that's a minus my book. Why because he's not playing
Speaker 1: every play as if he's getting the ball. Because if
Speaker 1: he released hard outside and went vertical, Nowlson, that's safety
Speaker 1: gets pulled out of the middle of the safety gets
Speaker 1: pulled out of the half. Guess what it's just done.
Speaker 1: It's opened up a whole portion of the field. So
Speaker 1: when I watch tape, I watch tape with a specific
Speaker 1: thing in mind. There's certain positions that I'll watch during
Speaker 1: two minute drills on Make sure to follow us on
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Speaker 1: Today weeknights, five thirty ten pm on NBC Sports Washington.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.