Robert Nkemdiche

Mississippi defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche runs through a drill at the NFL combine over the weekend.

(AP Photo)

ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions met with Robert Nkemdiche, Ole Miss' polarizing defensive lineman, at the NFL combine.

The reaction back home was swift, most of which boiled down to some variance of: WUT??!?!?!

I'm here to tell you: Relax.

Robert Nkemdiche will not be wearing a Detroit Lions uniform. At least not this year.

One of the biggest misconceptions outsiders have about the draft process in general, and the combine especially, is that an interview equates to interest. But that's not always the case. Sometimes teams are trying to vet a player's teammate. Other times they're trying to bank an interview in case the player lands with a division rival, or makes it to undrafted free agency.

And other times, it's just a matter of doing your homework on a guy to cross him off your list.

Who knows where exactly Nkemdiche falls on that spectrum. But given how NFL teams feel about him right now, and how the Lions feel in particular about player character, it would take an exceptional set of circumstances for the talented-but-troubled defensive lineman to end up in Detroit.

The Lions have prioritized prospect character ever since their disastrous 2011 draft, when guys such as Titus Young, Mikel Leshoure and Nick Fairley all went on to have off-the-field incidents. Though Martin Mayhew is out, new general manager Bob Quinn has expressed those same values as well.

So it's hard to imagine Quinn talking about how much he'll prioritize player character, and then make his very first draft pick as a GM one of the biggest character red flags in the draft.

Nkemdiche is tempting because he is such an athletic specimen. At 6-foot-3 and 294 pounds, he blazed a 4.87-second 40-yard dash on Sunday at the combine. He also had a 35-inch vertical jump and 28 reps on the 225-pound bench press.

In short, he is a top-five talent.

But he didn't exactly help himself at the combine, either, where he gave some mysterious, perhaps dubious, answers for his troubles. That includes claiming he wasn't using marijuana when he was charged with possessing marijuana the night he fell out of an Atlanta hotel window.

"The hotel room was under my name, and nobody wanted to take the fall," Nkemdiche claimed. "So it had to go under my name. It happened like that."

Apparently he didn't do much better answering for his sins with teams, because a player once talked about as a potential top-five pick is now considered a late-first round prospect, and some teams have taken him off their board completely.

There's no certainty he'll go in the first round at all.

"I'll be honest with you -- it's hard to get somebody to say something really positive about Nkemdiche right now from the league," ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay told reporters on a conference call Wednesday. "There's a lot of specifics that I'm not privy to in meetings, and different teams will react differently to the information, but, Robert Nkemdiche, in talking to maybe six or seven representatives from teams, whether it's scouts or GMs or coaches, he did not do himself any favors at the combine, and there's enough concern -- ultimately, it's about trust.

"Do you trust this individual to handle more fame than he's ever had before in his life? More money than he's ever had before in his life? And more free time than he's ever had before? And I think there are a lot of people in the league -- decision-makers -- right now really questioning that."

So a team such as Detroit, with glaring holes on the offensive and defensive lines, and a wealth of options to fill the latter with the 16th overall pick, probably isn't going to gamble on a boom-or-bust guy when there are much safer options.

And that's to say nothing of defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, who says he's wary of player who have NFL-type measurables but don't produce like it in college. And Nkemdiche never really did, failing to ever record more than three sacks in a season.

"I think for Detroit, sitting at 16 with some other guys in such a deep defensive tackle class, and with some possibilities at offensive tackle, there's enough other options where I would guess that Detroit would wind up passing and not take that boom or bust option at No. 16," McShay said.

Nkemdiche is a real physical talent, and somebody is going to take a chance on him eventually. But when it's all said an done, don't expect to see him in a Lions uniform anytime soon.

-- Download the Detroit Lions MLive app for iPhone and Android

-- Follow MLive Sports on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram