Nick Caserio: Goal of Combine interviews is to “sift through the noise”

NFL personnel hear countless stories – some great, some tragic – about player backgrounds when interviewing them at the NFL Combine.  Without naming the player, Texans general manager Nick Caserio said they interviewed one who said his house was shot.

“He was in his house when shots were fired on his home,” said Caserio at his presser yesterday at the NFL Combine. “Another player had a commute on a daily basis from one city to the next to go to a certain high school.  What you’re really trying to do is get a picture and a profile of the player – his mindset, his mentality, some of the things that have led to where he is at this point.  You’re not going to get that in a 15-to-20 minute interview, but you’re going to get a quick snapshot and general picture because in the end, this is a people business.”

Finding out about a player’s background is important because teams want to make sure a player is the right fit for the organization and locker room, Caserio said.  That’s why they take the interview process so seriously.

“Really just their background, who influenced them in terms of their development, who helped them the most, some of the things that they had to endure and overcome,” he said about what questions get asked.  “Players are smart.  They know when (another player) is sincere or full of crap.  Our job is to sift through the noise.”