2 weeks Ago
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — “I hate job interviews,” Kyle Shanahan said while on his way home from work last week. “I think you can hustle anyone in a job interview.
” The statement is significant for two reasons. For one, it helps explain why the San Francisco 49ers coaches usually skip the annual NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. The event is essentially a weeklong job fair and the prospects are so prepared, polished — and frankly, phony — that Shanahan feels he and his staff are better served staying in Santa Clara and tuning into the interviews via Zoom.
Advertisement “The time that I got the most out of Indy was back when I was a position coach,” he said. “And I could go talk to players on the side. It was just the player and me, and I could talk to the player one-on-one like a normal dude and I could get a feel for the guy.
When they come into these organized interviews, which is the ones that I’m in as a head coach and I’ve been in for a while now, I don’t get as good of a feel. Because it’s like they’re on stage.” His dislike of job interviews also speaks to what he considers the most critical — and frustrating — part of the pre-draft process: Figuring out a prospect’s true essence in the short amount of time they’re exposed to him.
Is he soft? Is he a malcontent? Why does he stand apart from his teammates on the sideline? Does he truly love the game of football? An accurate read is the difference between Jauan Jennings (seventh round) and Danny Gray (third round), between Dre Greenlaw (fifth round) and Reuben Foster (first round). It’s the difference between a boom and a bust. “There are some guys who are rough around the edges,” Shanahan said.
“But they work their asses off and football is everything to them. You just put them around the right type of guys and they’ll thrive because they love football. If they’re talented and there are some issues and they don’t love football? It never works out.
” Solving that puzzle is especially critical in the upcoming draft. During the offseason, the 49ers said goodbye to seven starters, a group that includes receiver Deebo Samuel, Greenlaw and three-fourths of last year’s starting defensive line. Replenishing the roster while remaining competitive in the NFC West — a tricky balance — hinges on them acing a draft in which they have 11 picks, including four in the first three rounds.
At his pre-draft news conference Tuesday, Lynch said the 49ers have first-round grades on 20 prospects and believe there are 200 draftable players in the class. Last year, the team had 23 first-round grades and 170 draftable players. “I like the depth of this draft,” Lynch said.
“I like that there are a lot of quality starters throughout this draft. And I think it runs into Day 2 and even into Day 3. .
.. I think there’s a lot of starters in this draft.
” Shanahan said the best way to determine a prospect’s character is to have a reliable source, someone who’s worked with the player and who knows what the 49ers are seeking. “They’re the ones who will tell me, ‘You’re not going to like this (prospect). Because he is soft,’” he said.
“Those are the (sources) that are most valuable to me.” Advertisement The team, for instance, appreciated Will Muschamp’s unvarnished reports when he was South Carolina’s head coach, and his feedback factored into their decision to draft Samuel in 2019 and Javon Kinlaw a year later. Muschamp is now with the University of Georgia, which has several players in the draft, including two — Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams — the 49ers could take at No.
11. Last year the team leaned on feedback from former Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards, who’s close to Lynch, in their evaluation of first-round pick Ricky Pearsall. And this year Lynch and his top lieutenants flew to Eugene, Ore.
, to talk to University of Oregon prospects and to have dinner with head coach Dan Lanning. Oregon has so many players in this year’s draft, including at the 49ers’ biggest positions of need, that it would be a mild surprise if they don’t come away with at least one Duck. “He’s become a good friend and ally,” Lynch said last month of Lanning.
“They’ve got it going on up there.” And while the combine interviews aren’t as valuable to Shanahan as they once were, they’re still part of the process. Lynch usually leads the roughly 18-minute sessions while Shanahan, a coordinator and a position coach appear on screen via Zoom.
“We have some fun,” Lynch said. “We try to get them laughing and loose. Because these guys are nervous coming in.
A lot of them are sweating. And so you try to break the ice.” If an extra dose of humor is needed, Lynch might tap scout Steve Rubio, who cross-checks the offensive linemen.
“Rubio’s hilarious,” Lynch said. “He’s our comedian.” If the interview requires thunder, well, there’s no one better than defensive line coach Kris Kocurek.
Shanahan recalled Kocurek’s first combine after the 49ers hired him in 2019. “His first interview was Maxx Crosby and he just went way too aggressive on him,” Shanahan said. “And when he left, John and I were like, ‘What was that, dude?’ And he’s like, ‘That’s what (former Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Jim) Schwartz wanted.
Didn’t you want me to, like, kill him?’” Advertisement Though Kocurek has toned down his approach since the encounter, every so often a combine interviewee needs to be jolted out of autopilot. Most of the time Shanahan watches from his Santa Clara office, often with his camera off. Sometimes he might text Lynch a question to ask.
“I’ll only jump in when I’m noticing bulls— on something or there’s something I want to address with a player,” he said. “And especially if it’s a character thing. .
.. If I hear a contradiction, I want to know more.
” Shanahan said longtime defensive coach Rod Marinelli once gave him a good line for breaking the ice, one he used in 2010 when quarterback Sam Bradford was coming out of Oklahoma and Shanahan was the offensive coordinator in Washington. “I said, ‘All right, Sam, we draft you and you come into the room and it’s the first day of team meetings and you sit down in a chair. And then Donovan McNabb comes in and says, “Hey, rookie, that’s my f—ing chair.
Get out!” And they do it in front of everyone. How are you going to handle that?’” Shanahan said Bradford stumbled with the answer, first saying he wouldn’t back down and then deciding he’d give the veteran his usual seat. He later asked Shanahan what he wanted him to say.
“And I said, ‘Nothing. There’s no right answer. I’m just trying to get your personality,’” Shanahan recalled.
“And it’s really hard to get their personality in those situations. And it’s harder now than it was 10 years ago.” The final analysis comes during the so-called official visits at 49ers headquarters.
The team can host up to 30 prospects and a handful of them each year are players the 49ers like on film but who have character questions. Maybe there was an incident at the scouting combine, which was the case with Foster in 2017. Perhaps the player had a beef with his college coaches like Jennings had at the University of Tennessee.
It might be that the player has designs on becoming a surgeon or a musician and the 49ers just want to find out how serious they are about a football career. The visits include a 30-minute sit-down meeting with Shanahan in his office. He said he doesn’t put too much stock into those since most prospects will put on the best face possible in front of the head coach.
So he also seeks input from non-traditional sources. He wants to know how a prospect acted in the waiting area while Shanahan wrapped up the previous interview. He talks to the intern who escorts the players to and from the headquarters building and Levi’s Stadium.
He wants the shuttle drivers’ feedback on what the players were like when they were driven back to the team hotel that evening. Advertisement “I hate my position,” Shanahan said. “If they’re not cool to me, then they’re probably not that smart.
Or they can’t help it. But when they don’t know who they’re talking to and they think it’s just (an intern), sometimes that helps.” The visits end with a group trip to nearby Topgolf, a franchise where small groups can have dinner, drinks and socialize while taking turns driving a ball from a tee.
The 49ers were the first team to hold the Topgolf excursions. Former assistant general manager Adam Peters brought the practice to Washington last year, and this year, the Las Vegas Raiders had an outing with their top prospects like Ashton Jeanty and Mason Graham. The goal is to get a sense of how a prospect interacts in a group setting and a hint of what he might be like in an NFL locker room.
“I just like to see how they carry themselves,” Shanahan said. “Are they one of the dudes? Do they hang out on their own? Are they just on their phones all the time? And there’s no right or wrong answer. I’ve had guys who are anti-social who are awesome.
And some guys who get along with everyone who end up being a problem. But you can kind of get a feel for who they are throughout the day when they’re talking to everyone and then end the day at a place like (Topgolf) where you can kind of relax.” Shanahan said he likes to lay low and observe the players, especially those who arrive with character questions.
“I might go up to a guy and mess with him about his golf swing and make fun of him a little bit, see how he reacts toward me,” he said. “It’s just trying to get guys out of their element so that you have an idea of what type of dude they are and get them out of interview mode.” (Top photo of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch: Thearon W.
Henderson / Getty Images).
