With time limited and the stakes high when teams meet with prospects this week at the NFL Scouting Combine, former Georgia QB Aaron Murray could only compare the experience to one thing -- speed dating.
"It's not only them interviewing me, but me getting to know them a little bit," he said Friday. "It's an open conversation. I have questions for them. They have questions for me. It's sort of like speed dating almost."
Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley didn't make the speed-dating connection, but he also touched on the fast-paced nature of the interview sessions Friday, saying they fly by faster than he'd like.
"It's a challenge -- you get 15 minutes and sometimes it feels like the horn blows fast and it's shortened. But hopefully they let their guard down so you can find out what they're really all about. Obviously, more extensive work will need to be done -- our scouts have done a great job talking to them and their coaches. That part of the process always continues and at the pro days, you hope to get even more information."
The information gathered in meetings is a small piece of the evaluations NFL teams conduct on each prospect, but several general managers have commented this year that the speed-dating sessions will be as important as ever as they try to get a better handle on the record number of underclassmen available in this year's class. Steelers GM Kevin Colbert said Thursday that this is the deepest but also the most immature draft class he has seen in 30 years.
Typically there is less known about the younger prospects, and teams have more questions about them, but still are allotted just 15 minutes to jam them in.
That's hardly enough time to decide whether they're worth asking on a second date, but, then again, there are cases of love at first sight.