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Todd Archer
Frisco, Texas – At some point in the next few days, a video memory will appear on Jake Ferguson’s cell phone, as every February has done since 2022.
It is a video that he took at the NFL Scouting combines in Indianapolis, approaching and dating a cowboys hat, a couple of months before the Dallas Cowboys took Wisconsin’s closed wing in the fourth round.
“I thought, ‘I want to go to the cowboys. I want to go to the cowboys,” said Ferguson. “I was expressing it and I walked in the [combine interview] And I was like, ‘ok’. I remember smiling at the coach [Mike] McCarthy too. But I entered and thought, ‘Very good, this feels at home’ “.
That year, Ferguson was one of the 45 players formally interviewed by the cowboys in the harvester inside a suite in Lucas Oil Stadium. It lasted 18 minutes, almost enough to know everything about someone, but enough to want to know someone more, or maybe less.
Ideally, these interviews serve as a verification list about whether the cowboys want to bring the player for one of their critical visits among the 30 best. In the case of Ferguson, the cowboys obtained all the answers they needed in the interview process and were not forced to take it to the star for a visit.
“By when we get to [the combine]We are confirming or verifying information, “said Chris Vaughn University Exploration Director.” We already have a lot of information, but if we believe that a boy is really intelligent, we are now verifying that. We rarely enter and start a report from scratch. We are more in the process. The 18 minutes do not seem much time, but we know what we want to get there. “
This week in Indianapolis, the cowboys will meet with another 45 players for formal interviews and dozens of others in informal meetings. They already met with a series of prospects in the Senior Bowl and East/West Shrine game as a prelude to the harvester.
Cowboys have a new chief coach (Brian Schottenheimer), the defensive coordinator (Matt Eberflus) and the offensive coordinator (Klayton Adams), but his process has not changed.
If there is an offensive player to be interviewed, Schottenheimer will be there with Adams and the position coach. The players’ vice president, Will McClay, will also be in the room, along with Mitch Lapaint, Scouting College director, and Vaughn. A national explorer, as well as the scout of the area that visited the school during the year, could also be included, in addition to other employees.
The prospect sits at the head of the table with all eyes looking at him while watching a video screen or a white board. You will see some Cowboys works on tape, as well as some of their own university works that will be dissected.
“It’s stressful if you do stressful,” Ferguson said. “Everyone says: ‘It’s the rest of your life’, but honestly, you just need to be yourself. That is what took you there.”
These days, players go through preparation work, not only for combination exercises in the field but also for interviews outside the field.
The cowboys begin the interviews of their players asking background questions. In advance, they have their internal security team and their general advisor about any legal problem that a player may have, so they know the answers to the questions they are about to do.
“Some of the boys are very honest,” Lapoint said. “Some of the guys will know that they lied completely. So you know you want to avoid them.”
Vaughn said: “Everything is a building to show him who the guy is, in whom you are investing or potentially bringing your costumes.”
Most of the discussion is about football. The coaches in the room will prepare different formations on the white board and make the player remember them. Then they will turn to a different theme, just to return to the training and make the player draw it later. They are testing the memory of a player and how good and fast can learn.
“You are listening, taking notes on how the guy is, how the game speaks,” Lapoint said. “You want to understand that. You want to see your balance.”
Some interviews stand out. Lapoint was in the room when the cowboys spoke with the Penn State supporter Sean Lee in 2010. Lee’s understanding of defensive concepts, their energy and leadership stood out everyone in the room.
“I wanted to write that guy at that time,” he said about the second round of the cowboys that year.
The closed winged coach, Lunda Wells, is one of the eight trailers of McCarthy staff. He has developed a plan when he interviews players in the harvester.
“I am really trying to put the player in a position, as if we were in the meeting room, and make them talk about football, so I will know their origins in terms of their football knowledge,” Wells said. “Maybe it will stand up and show me what they have taught. I only try to do it so much about being in the meeting room, so that it then has the best feeling of it as a player.”
Wells was in the room when the cowboys interviewed Ferguson.
After asking Ferguson to draw the formations, they looked at a tape.
“I absolutely made a boy in the Penn State game or something. The guy swam me, and missed the guy,” Ferguson. “Coach Wells was like,” What are you going to do here next time? “I am like, ‘this is my block. This is how I should do it, and I missed it.
“He says: ‘What are you going to do next time?’ I replied again.
Two months later, the Cowboys selected Ferguson, who went on to catch 149 passes for 1,429 yards in their first three seasons and did the Pro Bowl in 2023.
“The first day here,” said Ferguson, “the first [Wells] He told me it was about the interview. “
