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By Calvin Watkins 5h ago
The Cowboys’ 2019 draft is in the books. They picked eight players: five defensive players, two running backs and a guard. Opinions vary on the quality of the class, but that’s true across the league. It’s far too early to grade the class; nobody knows how well the players will perform. Cowboys officials are confident they have some potential starters and others who will get significant playing time. Will McClay, the Cowboys’ vice president of player personnel, puts the draft board together and has a strong voice in the war room. The Athletic spoke with McClay about every draft pick, the team’s approach and more.
How would you assess the NFL Draft overall?
We’re pleased with the draft because we got a bunch of guys that have the ability to play in different spots for us and compete and make the whole roster better. Competition makes it all better.
It sounds like the first pick came down between defensive tackle Trysten Hill and safety Juan Thornhill in the second round. What did you guys like about Hill?
At the end of the day, it all starts up front and that’s our philosophy. If it starts up front, you can affect the second and third level with good play at the first level. The way we play, it is in waves, and you need quality players. We got some good players, but we can always get better. I think the other thing is when you have the perfect marriage when you match the player’s ability and a player’s mindset with the coach then you can hopefully receive benefit from that investment early. That’s the big thing with him. The kid is all-in on (Cowboys defensive coordinator) Rod (Marinelli) and Rod is all in on the player, and very seldom do you have that.
You’ve got to think about kids coming from a college environment, be it positive and negative, and check with the two sides (player and coach) on this kid. When you come into a new professional environment and want to learn and want to get better, that’s when they will achieve their full potential, so that’s why it will even match more. The safety was a great player but we felt like we had done things in free agency to allow us to look at either player and make the decision that was best for us and potentially the best value.
Trysten Hill didn’t start his junior year at UCF.
He played as many snaps (as a starter).
There were red flags with Hill because of some issues with the UCF staff. How did you guys address those things?
We see the red flag and we’re going to dig on the red flag and make our interpretation based on what we know. Part of this whole scouting business is people talking to people and getting an opinion. That’s where your information comes from and you can take it with a grain of salt and we’re going to dig and talk to every person and find a way to collectively say: ‘This is who this kid is.’ It also stems from us spending time with the kid and knowing the negatives that were said and the positives that were said. We want to find the whole truth and not listen to somebody’s opinion.
The truth will be determined by what we find out and what we believe. There’s something to (Nebraska coach) Scott Frost playing for Rod and knowing who Rod is and the value Rod put into that word, because he knows that person and that person knows him. That gave us a little bit and then we brought him in and spent time with him and found out what he’s all about. That kid is all football, and shoot – I say this every year when people bring up questions about this guy or that guy or they formulate opinions about a guy who is 21 years old on a college campus. We’ve seen things in the news and politics and everything else going back to when people did when they were in college. Let’s not make a judgment on a kid based on who that kid is, being 20 years old, and the decisions that we make.
I assume there were a lot of conversations with the current UCF staff about Hill?
We did our research on that stuff to make that decision. I always say this, college coaches are trying to win games too and whatever issues they had, his ass was on the field. He wasn’t that bad of a player, he wasn’t that much of an issue.
Was there an opportunity to trade up in the second round?
If you stay there (No. 58) and evaluate your board the right way, you should. Our philosophy is to sit and wait and wait for it to come to us because there were players that we liked at different positions that were still there as we were coming down the stretch, the last 15 picks or whatever we felt like, we started watching it and felt like we had guys that we liked there.
This was the first time you didn’t have a first-round pick since you’ve taken over the draft board. How different was this for you?
It was the same mindset; you never know what could happen. Let’s say there was a player we thought was the whole thing, and we really wanted to get our hands, on that was in the Top 10; and let’s say he started sliding down. Then you look at those situations and you have to be prepared for it and knowing the players and what’s it going to cost to do that.
Connor McGovern was a surprise pick. He’s got position flex. What do you guys like about him?
Just an extremely solid football player and is pro-ready, and you never know what’s going to happen. Our offensive line is our strongest unit and Jerry (Jones) says you want to keep strength strong and if that value was there for him, a late second-round player in that round (third), it took a great deal of discipline from us not to do the sexy thing and say, ‘Okay, let’s go get a lesser player that we had valued down in that range.’ If you got a second-rounder up there and you’re in the third round and it’s a good fit, why not do it. And especially with all the things coming up. You’ve got to do business in the NFL as well as go win games.
Everyone expected you guys to take a safety early but does what you did in free agency curtail that somewhat?
We added competitive depth to that position anyway, and if you’re not going to go get the ultimate, ultimate, greatest player ever, it’s a team game, one player is not going to make a difference. That was the thought process there. If you can help the line get better, that makes everybody else’s job easier. We’re very happy with the safeties that we have now. Public opinion says you can do this and do that. We addressed it and tried to improve it. There were no safeties that separated themselves enough that made you go off of the board and potentially miss another good player you could add to the roster.
In general, or in the third and fourth rounds?
In general. There were some guys that we liked that were there that could have helped us but only at the right price.
You eventually drafted a safety, Donovan Wilson in the sixth round. What did you like about him?
When you talk about how we play football and what our style is, defensively we’re a one-gap football team, which means you have to have eight down in the box and you have to trust your free safety. Which we do with Xavier Woods, who is going to be a really good player, that’s developing. You’re looking for a box safety, most of the guys that were in the draft, there were more box safeties than free safeties. We felt like the physical presence that Donovan brings can give us some competition at that spot and a chancellor-like presence in a single one-gap football defense.
You guys snagged two running backs. What are your thoughts on them?
We were looking for a back in the fourth round to add to our stable. We know we got the best running back in the NFL (Ezekiel Elliott) and we know he’s going to be on the field. What else could you add to that while giving yourself depth? With (Tony) Pollard, you did that. He’s tough enough to run inside, you don’t want to make a living there, everybody is saying that. I think he’s extremely tough and can only get better but you add some explosive elements and add some different things potentially to an offense that will allow you to be more flexible in how you use your personnel, because you add a space player. We have those all over the roster now and if we’re creative and use them like we plan to do, now it makes it a lot more difficult.
Pollard adds to that, plus he can give you explosive plays in the kicking game and be a contributor. When you have your game-day roster moves you have to think about, it’s who can contribute in three phases of football. So if you can contribute on two of those on a high level, it gives you some flexibility on game day and within your roster.
Is Mike Weber a traditional running back?
He can do some stuff outside and there are parts of his game that have to develop. He’s a good running back, a young kid with upside that can do some of the things Zeke does. In the same fashion, you plug and play.
Michael Jackson, the corner from Miami, can he plays the slot and outside? Did you see that in college?
He can play inside and outside. Our profile with (defensive backs coach/passing game coordinator) Kris (Richard) is big, long, athletic corners if you can get them. This guy gives you the ability to go long. You might have a package where we have to cover tight ends and so he has the ability to cover tight ends man-to-man and plus the fact, the size of the receivers in the NFL, you want to be able to match those guys and still be able to handle the quickness. You find ways, strategy-wise, to do that. But you also have to have players to execute it.
Let’s talk about the two pass rushers, Joe Jackson and Jalen Jelks, picked on the last day. Looks like Jackson has all the measurables.
He’s got the NFL measurables and the college production at a high level of football. He loves the game, he can play at left end or right end and he can potentially move inside some. It gives you depth and competition at defensive line positions and it’s all competitive, who fits the bit, it’s all competitive, the top guys will make it. But he has that physical trait we’re looking for. We’ve had success and gotten mileage out of those guys who are just really good physical football players up front, and he fit that.
How did you find Jelks?
The scouts go out and do their jobs and our area guys, we tell them they’re the GM of their areas. They go in their areas and they talk about guys and they study guys the whole time in their area. (West Coast scout) Jim Abrams brought him up and watched him progress and we saw him at the Senior Bowl, and it’s one of those things where you see a guy play. To me, there were some things that you saw out of (DeMarcus Lawrence) and the fact he was in a defense playing in a (four-man front) and he was playing heavy and still able to get pressure. This kid played multiple spots, played hard as heck at whatever spot you played him at. He played the defensive end and he’s good at setting the edge on the run. He does a good job when you can go inside and he’s a good enough athlete to win inside. Does he have the (speed) as an outside rusher? That’s to be seen, but he’s going to work hard and he can also get inside and give you matchups there.
Did anything surprise you in this draft?
No, I think we were prepared for anything because anything can happen. I feel like the NFL nowadays is not like the NFL five years ago because people would hold true to the draft chart, there weren’t a lot of trades. It’s changed; nothing really surprised me. You might say (a) team either stretched a little bit based on our board, but our board ain’t theirs. To each their own, there were some things that helped us out. We might have had a guy in a certain round and that guy went to another team in a higher round so that pushed the guys that we liked closer to us.
Why not draft a tight end?
We like what we have. If the opportunity would have presented itself at the right price to add a tight end, you consider it. But this is ongoing, evolving. There’s going to be guys, teams have added players and teams that drop players and players you can look at if we feel like we need to add to that position. You don’t add it all in the draft. A lot of people don’t play with tight ends anymore the way we’re looking for tight ends. That makes a difference too.
I guess the perception was safeties would go off the board high in the second round and at some point tight ends would go. But the first safety didn’t get picked until late in the first round and then two more safeties were selected after you guys picked Trysten Hill. The tight end spot was interesting, we all knew the Iowa tight ends would go and maybe Irv Smith (Alabama) slipped a little bit. It was hard to predict.
It’s all on what you’re looking for. College football produces more pass-catching, match-up tight ends, and then those teams that have Y tight ends, they are either good blockers or good receivers. When you’re trying to find a complete guy it’s difficult. You shouldn’t force it. With our new direction offensively and what we’re talking about doing, it’s about having players that have roles and now it’s the objective to put players in position that we have to succeed.
Now that the draft is over, what’s next?
It’s cleanup time. At end of the draft is when you make sure you have all your people back and formulate a direction you’re gonna go, and we’re starting the offseason program. Now it’s time to evaluate our roster and still looking to improve, and it continues on. And in a couple weeks, we look at the new batch that’s coming in next year.
