Joe Rexrode

The Tennessean

The search for better players to create better teams often comes down to the questions of character and psychology — and sometimes manifests itself in bizarre questions.

“Would you rather be a cat or a dog?”

“If you had to murder someone, would you use a gun or a knife?”

“How many different things can you do with a paper clip?”

NFL prospects have revealed these and many other oddball queries from their interviews with teams, which are interested in both the content of the answers and the ability to think quickly and handle pressure. For Tennessee Titans general manager Jon Robinson, one question in particular had to be asked of all 30 players who visited the team facility before his first draft.

“What’s my name?”

This is a whirlwind process, you see, with one interview bleeding into the next flight, and that question is a test of seriousness and preparedness. It’s also easy enough for the informationally overwhelmed, because Robinson asks it in his office.

Five footballs featuring his name in large letters are on the wall behind him, two for contributing to Super Bowl champions in New England, one for a decade of service there, one for his time as director of player of personnel in Tampa Bay and one personally signed by Bill Belichick. If the prospect in question handles the moment, maintains composure and takes stock of the room, the answer is right in front of him.

A couple of the 2016 draft hopefuls did just that, making it a handful overall to answer the question correctly. Everyone else?

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“You see the beads of sweat forming on their faces,” Robinson said, sitting in that same office Thursday, three days before the unveiling of his first attempt at a winning professional football team.

That’s just one of many moments of evaluation, of course, and you don’t get into the room unless you have an enticing enough combination of size, speed, strength and skills. Every answer, every outside endorsement and criticism, every filmed rep and timed sprint is thrown into a file, which ultimately shapes a decision on that player.

“An informed, instinctive call, if you will,” Robinson said.

And if you make enough good ones, you win, and here’s an early, instinctive call on Robinson: He’ll win. I have no idea how much or whether he can build a Super Bowl team, let alone a string of them as he helped do as a scout and then director of college scouting for Belichick’s Patriots.

But the results to date, philosophy and approach of the 40-year-old from Union City suggest better days ahead for a franchise that has gone 5-27 the past two seasons. To which you say: How hard is it to have “better days” than 5-27?

To which I say: OK, fine, let’s get wild and say “good days.” Competitive teams playing a physical brand of football, running the ball and defending, winning enough to take part in relevant games in December and flirt with playoff bids.

In the AFC South in 2016 with this improving-yet-incomplete roster, that’s not off the table. Anything beyond that in the future will hinge on effective Robinson selections, particularly at wide receiver and in the secondary.

“We’d like to be playing in the postseason,” Robinson said of this team. “You want to get in the tournament. That’s what we’re working for daily, and the way to get in the tournament is through daily preparation.”

And in the meantime, the 2018 draft is on the horizon. Yes, 2018 — among many things Robinson learned from Belichick was to look as far ahead as possible. And nothing is more important in the salary-cap era than the draft.

Take the Indianapolis Colts, which employ zero of the seven players GM Ryan Grigson drafted in 2013. That helps explain why Indy is a pretty bad team other than quarterback Andrew Luck, whose six-year, $140 million deal could make it more difficult to put enough quality players around him.

That part of the equation is a problem Robinson and the Titans hope to have. Receiver Harry Douglas summed up this week the feeling inside the building on Marcus Mariota when he said: “Marcus doesn’t look like he’s going into year two — he looks like he’s going into year six, seven or eight. He’s a franchise quarterback now.”

If that ends up true, Mariota will go from $6 million a year to more than $20 million in 2018, and Robinson will face cap challenges. That’s why the draft is so crucial.

It’s why Robinson spinning the No. 1 overall pick into a slew of picks from the Los Angeles Rams was so clutch. It’s why sensible free-agent deals — as his signings of Ben Jones, Rashad Johnson and Rishard Matthews seem to be — are important as well.

It’s why one person more than any other will dictate the happiness of the Nashville sports fan over the next few years, based on “instinctive calls” that are informed by exhaustive analysis and aided by wacky questions. You should already know his name.

Follow Joe Rexrode on Twitter @joerexrode.