49ers head of college scouting sheds light on combine interview process

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Each NFL team is granted 60 interviews of 15 minutes apiece with participants at the NFL Scouting Combine.

The 49ers have a number of executives, coaches and scouts in the room in Indianapolis in a concerted effort to get as much information as possible during that tight window of time.

“What we really want to see is if this guy is going to be a fit with our coaching staff, with our current players, with our locker room, with our culture,” 49ers director of college scouting Ethan Waugh said on the 49ers Insider Podcast.

“We really want to see a guy that’s genuine, a guy that loves not only playing football but loves the process of playing football – the week of preparation, the study, all of those preparation habits that go into being a good football player.”

Waugh, who has worked 15 years for the 49ers in a variety of scouting roles, described the process of trying to learn the truth about a young man when his agent has spent the previous couple of months programming him on how to answer questions during interviews with NFL personnel.

“What we try to do is get them off course a little bit, get them off their script and strip them down to who they actually are,” Waugh said. “I don’t think we’re infallible, but our coaches and our scouts do a great job of getting to the core of the guy as quickly as we can.”

All indications are that the 49ers learned a great deal about at least a couple of the prospects.

Ole Miss wide receiver D.K. Metcalf improved his draft stock when he demonstrated all the measurable – height, weight, strength, explosion and speed – at the combine. Metcalf did not put up great numbers in an injury-plagued college career, topping out at 39 receptions for 646 yards in 2017.

Florida edge rusher Jachai Polite, coming off a 11-sack season, has all the physical meaurables, too. But he had a disappointing combine with one of the slowest times at his position before removing himself from drills with a hamstring injury.

However, Metcalf and Polite had one thing in common: Neither, it appeared, made a connection with the 49ers during their 15-minute formal interviews with the organization in Indianapolis.

Metcalf said he was taught a valuable lesson during his time with 49ers general manager John Lynch, coach Kyle Shanahan and receivers coach Wes Welker. That lesson, he said: “Keep your cool.” He declined to provide more specifics.

[RELATED: What Metcalf learned from 49ers interview]

Polite was a lot less cryptic in his assessment of his time spent with the 49ers.

“Yeah, I talked to them,” Polite said. “I spoke to them the first day. They bashed me again. A lot of people bashed me. I’m not going to lie. I don’t even get the message at all. They didn’t even speak about football, really.”

Polite said all teams that interviewed him – except the Los Angeles Rams – skewed toward the negative, and it clearly bothered him.

"They're not really talking about anything good right now,” Polite said. “They want to know all the bad things about you, like character.”

[RELATED: Polite says 49ers staff was tough on him]

Waugh was interviewed for the podcast before Metcalf and Polite disclosed their meetings with the 49ers to the media. Waugh said the 49ers like to get a player to open up about how he got to this point in his life. The team tries to get information or explanations about the person that was not readily available. They also will talk football in a rapid-fire fashion to get a read on the player’s knowledge of the game and recall of plays and assignments in the past.

“We bounce some other topics off them and not allow them to stay one-track,” Waugh said. “(We) jump back and forth, and it’s usually pretty revealing. Obviously, it’s not going to be perfect, but it’s a good way to use that 15 minutes.”

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