sbk92
2
- Messages
- 12,134
- Reaction score
- 6
By: Anthony Castonzo
For Sporting News
The Combine was a great experience. The first few days—with a lot of the medical stuff—is a bit of a grind. We’re just going from room to room having people poke and prod at us.
At night on those days, we had meetings with position coaches. I got to meet with a bunch of o-line coaches informally and that was fun. They taught me some plays, had me give the plays back to them. They were testing my football IQ, so that was fun.
In my formal interviews with the GMs, head coaches and the important people from the teams, I was getting grilled on a lot of things. Some put up film. I enjoyed picking apart the film.
The last day was a huge adrenaline rush. I was trying to do my best on all those drills. It was just non-stop and heart-pounding. Afterwards, it was a big sigh of relief that it was all over.
One team put up some of my worst plays from the year and had me break them down. They asked, “What were you thinking on this play? What did your coach say to you when you came off the field?” I was like, oh my goodness. I had to critique myself. When I was watching those bad plays the first time in my film room, I thought, “Oh, that’s a terrible play.” So having to revisit those was a bit of a task.
I feel like they were interested in how I would react—instead of coming up with excuses. Basically, I was being asked, “What was I thinking on that play?” And I would say this is what I was thinking, but I just executed it with poor technique. There was really no way around it. They were looking to see if I was the kind of guy who would shy away from a challenge or make up excuses instead of tackling it head on. That was a good test.
— As told to Ken Bradley
About the author: Anthony Castonzo, Boston College OT
At last week’s Combine, Castonzo weighed in at 311 pounds. “I set my sights between 310 and 312 and I ended up at 311, so it was right where I wanted to be.” Now, Sporting News draft expert Russ Lande has Castonzo in an enviable position. In his latest mock draft, Lande projects Castonzo will be selected ninth in April’s draft.
For Sporting News
The Combine was a great experience. The first few days—with a lot of the medical stuff—is a bit of a grind. We’re just going from room to room having people poke and prod at us.
At night on those days, we had meetings with position coaches. I got to meet with a bunch of o-line coaches informally and that was fun. They taught me some plays, had me give the plays back to them. They were testing my football IQ, so that was fun.
In my formal interviews with the GMs, head coaches and the important people from the teams, I was getting grilled on a lot of things. Some put up film. I enjoyed picking apart the film.
The last day was a huge adrenaline rush. I was trying to do my best on all those drills. It was just non-stop and heart-pounding. Afterwards, it was a big sigh of relief that it was all over.
One team put up some of my worst plays from the year and had me break them down. They asked, “What were you thinking on this play? What did your coach say to you when you came off the field?” I was like, oh my goodness. I had to critique myself. When I was watching those bad plays the first time in my film room, I thought, “Oh, that’s a terrible play.” So having to revisit those was a bit of a task.
I feel like they were interested in how I would react—instead of coming up with excuses. Basically, I was being asked, “What was I thinking on that play?” And I would say this is what I was thinking, but I just executed it with poor technique. There was really no way around it. They were looking to see if I was the kind of guy who would shy away from a challenge or make up excuses instead of tackling it head on. That was a good test.
— As told to Ken Bradley
About the author: Anthony Castonzo, Boston College OT
At last week’s Combine, Castonzo weighed in at 311 pounds. “I set my sights between 310 and 312 and I ended up at 311, so it was right where I wanted to be.” Now, Sporting News draft expert Russ Lande has Castonzo in an enviable position. In his latest mock draft, Lande projects Castonzo will be selected ninth in April’s draft.