Silva

Jamie Silva’s NFL Combine experience yesterday was centered more around the mental than the physical, as the East Providence native and Boston College All-American took psychological exams as well as the infamous Wonderlic test, while passing on the bench press.

“It’s been tiring; long,” Silva said of the day when reached in Indianapolis last night.

It began just before 6 a.m. with breakfast and then an NFL Players’ Association meeting outlining players’ rights. Then he had a meeting with the Chicago Bears before taking the written tests.

After dinner, Silva had meetings with the Seattle Seahawks and Indianapolis Colts. Others may have popped up as well; teams often just pull players aside in hallways for informal chats. That’s the type of interaction Silva has had with the Patriots at the Combine. At the East-West Shrine game last month in Houston, he had a more formal talk with New England officials.

The only physical activity scheduled for the day was the bench press with the other defensive backs in Group 11, but Silva chose not to participate.

“I’ve had a sore shoulder, so coming into the Combine I wasn’t planning on doing it. I didn’t feel like I was prepared physically,” Silva said. “If it continues to progress, I’ll do it at our Pro Day.”

Silva said the injury was improving but he reaggravated it in the East-West game.

BC’s Pro Day, when scouts visits prospects on campus for another series of physical drills and interviews, is set for March 18.

As for the Wonderlic, a 12-minute, 50-question exam to test a prospect’s intelligence, Silva has prior experience with the test, as he took it at BC’s Pro Day last year.

“It was cool,” Silva said of the test. “It was somewhat similar to an SAT, basically math problems and some verbal questions. Some were tough, some weren’t. Some you really had to think about.”

There were also word association questions, and all were multiple choice. Silva said he completed 35 of the 50 questions in the allotted time yesterday and felt he got 30 correct. Last year, he scored a 29, which was the best of Boston College’s prospects at the time and well above the reported average score for a safety (19).

Only one player has ever scored a perfect 50: Harvard’s Pat McInally, who went on to play punter and wide receiver for the Bengals from 1976-85.

Silva also took a 200-question psychological exam, which took an hour. He said some of the questions are similar but reworded to see if players give consistent answers.

While the questions teams ask are varied and tend to focus on a player’s background and family, some throw in football questions. Tennessee State corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie said the Patriots were the first team to ask him to draw up a defensive play, and Silva got that question a few times as well.

One team asked about a play in base defense, while another had a sheet with three different formations on it and asked Silva for a play out of each one.

Today, the final day of the Combine, Silva takes part in the on-field drills, including the 40-yard dash, broad jump and agility drills.

smanza@projo.com