FRISCO, Texas -- At some point in the next few days, a video memory will pop up on Jake Ferguson's cell phone, as it has every February since 2022.
It's a video he took at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, zooming in and out on a Cowboys hat, a couple of months before the Dallas Cowboys took the Wisconsin tight end in the fourth round.
"I was like, 'I want to go to the Cowboys. I want to go to the Cowboys,'" Ferguson said. "I was manifesting it, and I walked in the [combine interview] and I was like, 'OK.' I remember smiling at Coach [Mike] McCarthy, too. But I walked in and I was like, 'All right, this feels like home.'"
That year, Ferguson was one of 45 players formally interviewed by the Cowboys at the combine inside a suite at Lucas Oil Stadium. It lasted 18 minutes, hardly enough time to get to know everything about somebody, but enough to want to know somebody more -- or maybe less.
Ideally, these interviews serve as a checklist as to whether the Cowboys want to bring the player in for one of their critical top-30 visits. In Ferguson's case, the Cowboys got all the answers they needed in the interview process and were not compelled to bring him to The Star for a visit.
"By the time we get to [the combine], we are either confirming or verifying information," assistant director of college scouting Chris Vaughn said. "We've got a lot of information already, but if we think a guy's really smart, now we're verifying that. Rarely do we go in and start a report from scratch. We're further along the process. The 18 minutes doesn't seem like a lot of time, but we know what we want to get to."
This week in Indianapolis, the Cowboys will meet with another 45 players for formal interviews and dozens of others in informal meetings. They already met with a number of prospects at the Senior Bowl and East/West Shrine Game as a prelude to the combine.
The Cowboys have a new head coach (Brian Schottenheimer), defensive coordinator (Matt Eberflus) and offensive coordinator (Klayton Adams), but their process has not changed.
If there is an offensive player set to be interviewed, Schottenheimer will be there with Adams and the position coach. Vice president of player personnel Will McClay will also be in the room, along with Mitch LaPoint, the director of college scouting, and Vaughn. A national scout, as well as the area scout who visited the school during the year, might be included, too, in addition to some other staffers.
The prospect sits at the head of the table with all eyes peering at him as he looks at a video screen or white board. He will see some Cowboys' plays on tape as well as some of his own plays from college that will be dissected.
"It's stressful if you make it stressful," Ferguson said. "Everybody's like, 'It's the rest of your life,' but honestly, you just need to be yourself. That's what got you there."
These days, players go through prep work, not only for the on-field combine drills but also the off-field interviews.
The Cowboys start their player interviews by asking background questions. Beforehand, they have their in-house security team and general counsel go through any legal issues a player may have, so they know the answers to the questions they are about to ask.
"Some of the guys are very honest," LaPoint said. "Some of the guys we'll know that they completely lied. So you just kind of know you want to avoid them."
Said Vaughn, "It's all kind of building to show you who the guy is, who you're potentially investing in or potentially bringing into your locker room."
Most of the discussion is about football. The coaches in the room will draw up different formations on the white board and have the player remember them. Then they will pivot to a different topic, only to go back to the formation and have the player draw it up later. They are testing a player's memory and how well and quickly he can learn.
"You're listening, taking notes on how the guy comes across, how he talks the game," LaPoint said. "You want to understand that. You want to see his poise."
Some interviews stand out. LaPoint was in the room when the Cowboys talked to Penn State linebacker Sean Lee in 2010. Lee's understanding of defensive concepts, his energy and leadership stood out to everybody in the room.
"I wanted to draft that guy right then," he said of the Cowboys' second-round pick that year.
Tight ends coach Lunda Wells is one of eight holdovers from McCarthy's staff. He has developed a plan when he interviews players at the combine.
"I'm really trying to put the player in a position, as if we're in the meeting room, and get him to talk football, so I'll know his origins in terms of his football knowledge," Wells said. "Maybe I'll get him to stand up and show me what he's been taught. I just try to make it as much about being in the meeting room setting, so that I then get the best feel for him as a player."
Wells was in the room when the Cowboys interviewed Ferguson.
After he asked Ferguson to draw up the formations, they looked at some tape.
"I absolutely whiffed on a guy in the Penn State game or something. The dude swam at me, and I missed the guy," Ferguson. "Coach Wells was like, "What are you going to do here the next time?' I'm like, 'This is my block. This is how I'm supposed to do it, and I missed on it.'
"He goes, 'What are you going to do the next time?' I answered him again. He asked it again. Finally, I just said, 'Well, I'm going to f--- him up.' And he goes, 'Good.'"
Two months later, the Cowboys drafted Ferguson, who went on to catch 149 passes for 1,429 yards in his first three seasons and made the Pro Bowl in 2023.
"The first day in here," Ferguson said, "the first thing [Wells] said to me was about the interview."