Machota: Will McClay on Cowboys’ 2020 draft MVP and how an impressive class came together

[Cowboysrock55]

Absolutely, While Watt is maybe small for a 4-3 DE, at the very least you have a terror on passing downs instead of an already cut mediocrity. And I just want to cry when I think about Thornhill/Hill.

Yeah their desire for physical prototypes in the draft has definitely sunk us more than once. And who knows it may have in this draft as well but we will never know. They might have though Gallimore wasn't quick twitch enough. They may have thought that Lamb doesn't fit what they want to do with 2 TEs. It's hard to say at this point but all I know is that the draft worked out pretty well this season and I trust that our coaches are going to know how to fit the scheme to these players instead of the other way around.

 

[Stasheroo]

Absolutely, While Watt is maybe small for a 4-3 DE, at the very least you have a terror on passing downs instead of an already cut mediocrity. And I just want to cry when I think about Thornhill/Hill.

I think the obvious miss on the TJ Watt pick is exactly why we are where we are now. Where it's being widely talked about of fitting scheme to players. TJ Watt is exactly that player that a good coordinator would adjust his scheme for. The sheer hypocrisy of seeing it mentioned by this team when they've had no trouble trading for a 3-4 OLB like Charles Haley and winning championships in the past is ridiculous.

The sad fact is that they were simply under-qualified in many areas and acquiesced power and influence to guys that were 'respected'. Garrett didn't know shit about defense, so he brought in Kiffen (who was done by then) and turned everything over to him, and then by extension when they realized he wad done, they turned things over to Marinelli. And when they did that, they also listened to everything he had to say about the player they would be drafting, to their obvious detriment. Simply because nobody else knew any better or had the guts to say anything. So we get megabust Taco Charlton and aspiring bust Trysten Hill.

I think just firing both Garrett and Marinelli is insufficient penalty for the long term damage that both managed to do to this team.

 

[Stasheroo]

Somehow the coaches in the Garrett era wormed their way into way too much say in the drafting process.

In terms of draft process, I think it was just Garrett and Marinelli (although Frank Pollack did successfully campaign for Chaz Green who ultimately cost him his job).

But instead of rightfully firing Linehan, this team gave him another year and enough rope to hang himself (which he of course did). He was the guy allowed to run off all of the assistant coaches he didn't like as well as a few players like Dez. Receiver-by-committee was the direct result of listening to that moron. The book is now out on Linehan and he can't even get back into the NFL.

I'm shocked he got a 'passing coordinator' job at LSU. But he's basically relegated to a half-coordinator job at the college level. And they'll soon learn that he's a miserable dick who's only out for himself and those 'people skills' of his will be his undoing once again.

 

[p1_]

I think just firing both Garrett and Marinelli is insufficient penalty for the long term damage that both managed to do to this team.

what else is there ?

 

[Smitty]

Nor do you have to look for why we're suddenly back on the right track in the draft.

It's because Garrett and Marinelli are gone.

If not for the interference of those two buffoons, this team has TJ Watt vs Taco Charlton. If not for those two buffoons, this team has Juan Thornhill at safety vs worrying about Trysten Hill turning his career around.

We got better when they were rightfully sent packing, both on the field and during the draft.

For sure those are two pretty obvious examples of us trying to force fit players who fit scheme over just good players.

 

[Stasheroo]

what else is there ?

 

[Stasheroo]

For sure those are two pretty obvious examples of us trying to force fit players who fit scheme over just good players.

With both being complete disasters.

 

[Smitty]

In terms of draft process, I think it was just Garrett and Marinelli (although Frank Pollack did successfully campaign for Chaz Green who ultimately cost him his job).

But instead of rightfully firing Linehan, this team gave him another year and enough rope to hang himself (which he of course did). He was the guy allowed to run off all of the assistant coaches he didn't like as well as a few players like Dez. Receiver-by-committee was the direct result of listening to that moron. The book is now out on Linehan and he can't even get back into the NFL.

I'm shocked he got a 'passing coordinator' job at LSU. But he's basically relegated to a half-coordinator job at the college level. And they'll soon learn that he's a miserable dick who's only out for himself and those 'people skills' of his will be his undoing once again.

Yet Linehan was enshrined here as the only reason why the offense was good -- and it was good -- for a couple years.

Maybe we'll learn something and approach the next coach with more nuanced critiques.

 

[Stasheroo]

Yet Linehan was enshrined here as the only reason why the offense was good -- and it was good -- for a couple years.

Maybe we'll learn something and approach the next coach with more nuanced critiques.

For as much talent as those teams clearly had on offense, I think the book is out that Linehan grossly underachieved. Especially when, in the few times they were missing a piece or two of that talent (Romo, Tyron Smith), he and his offense couldn't get out of their own way.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Yet Linehan was enshrined here as the only reason why the offense was good -- and it was good -- for a couple years.

Maybe we'll learn something and approach the next coach with more nuanced critiques.

We didn't realize that we were a highly effective rushing team until Linehan got here, even though it was painfully obvious in 2013 (coughpackersgamecough).

So yeah, Linehan gets props for that.

And we're left wondering why the coaches didn't figure that path out earlier.

Oh, yeah, I remember why now.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

Yet Linehan was enshrined here as the only reason why the offense was good -- and it was good -- for a couple years.

Maybe we'll learn something and approach the next coach with more nuanced critiques.

Yeah my problem with Linehan is that he becomes extremely predictable. For a year that may work but then teams catch on and it doesn't work. You switch QBs and RBs, things change a little and it works again. But teams again catch on to your tendencies and it fails again.

 

[Genghis Khan]

As an aside, can we please stop STILL dying on the Garrett hill?

It's over. Move on.

 

[Smitty]

As an aside, can we please stop STILL dying on the Garrett hill?

It's over. Move on.

I’m not dying on anything. No one is here claiming he’s a great coach. Just pointing out the obvious falsities and contradictory claims about him over the years.

But when you say literally everything is his fault, some of it is bound to be wrong.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I’m not dying on anything. No one is here claiming he’s a great coach. Just pointing out the obvious falsities and contradictory claims about him over the years.

But when you say literally everything is his fault, some of it is bound to be wrong.

It's hard poster A blames him for one thing. Poster B blames him for another, so on and so fourth. So it feels worse than it is to you.

 

[Genghis Khan]

It's hard poster A blames him for one thing. Poster B blames him for another, so on and so fourth. So it feels worse than it is to you.

The point he's missing is it literally doesn't matter at this point.

We criticized Wade up and down, and same with Campo. Same with Gailey. And on and on.

Why give a shit? Other than desperately trying to prove that you weren't as wrong about the guy as it seems.

But who cares at this point. Regardless of anything else, he had ten. Fucking. Years. And he wasn't nearly good enough.

And now...

HE'S GONE.

 

[Simpleton]

Fuck Jason Garrett?

Yes, fuck Jason Garrett.

 

[ravidubey]

Jason started his tenure too soon, focused too much on copying great offenses of the past, and prioritized kissing Jerry's ass way too much.

So yeah, fuck him

 

[p1_]

Jason started his tenure too soon, focused too much on copying great offenses of the past, and prioritized kissing Jerry's ass way too much.

So yeah, fuck him

I mistakenly expected better results. He got about 5 years too many IMO.

 

[L.T. Fan]

Garrett wasn’t well indoctrinated in various football styles and Philosophies. He had limited experience when he came to Dallas. When he was made HC he defaulted to the system he learned as a player from Norv Turner and Ernie Zampieze. He never tried to change or improve. Even with other Coordinators at the helm he retained the playcalling most of the time until it was wrested away from him. He simply was a limited Coach whether by choice or by not being able to innovate.

 

[boozeman]

The behind-the-scenes MVP of the Cowboys' 2020 NFL draft

6:00 AM ET

Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones was quick to call Will McClay the MVP of the team's 2020 NFL draft. And, coach Mike McCarthy was full of praise after going through his first draft with the vice president of player personnel.

McClay & Co. drafted seven players last week, including the Cowboys' first-round pick of wide receiver CeeDee Lamb at No. 17 overall. If you're wondering what McClay thought of the accolades, his answer is it is a study on leadership. It's similar to the leadership Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has shown with the team-first mantra.

"The MVP of the draft is the scouts, to me," McClay said. "It's a thankless job to go out and do that. We have an all-inclusive process that allows typically the scouts are in the meeting. They get to express their feelings about a player and do all that and that's the way we've typically done that. Because of the conditions [virtual draft], we weren't able to do that. They gave me and the college management staff all the information and trusted us to get that information to ownership. Ownership took that information, the coaches listened to all that.
"With what our country's going through right now and all the other things going on, our guys' ability to focus in and do the job was just an incredible thing. That's what I was most proud about: The work of other people and the accolades to come from that [are] not as much as me, but make sure everybody gets the credit for that and realizing that how you win is with the team."

McClay has accepted blame for past Cowboys picks that have not worked out (such as defensive end Taco Charlton), but he continuously deflects praise on the ones that have gone right (Zack Martin, DeMarcus Lawrence, Byron Jones, Ezekiel Elliott, Prescott, Leighton Vander Esch).

Cowboys quick hits

Trust in the draft process: The Cowboys like to use the term "blinking light" when a player is available at a certain pick that is much lower than where he is graded on their board. Lamb was a blinking light as the sixth-rated player on the board when the Cowboys drafted him at No. 17.

Cornerback Trevon Diggs had a high-second-round grade and the Cowboys selected him in the middle of the round (No. 51). Defensive tackle Neville Gallimore had a second-round grade from the Cowboys, but they got him in the third round (No. 82). Center Tyler Biadasz was graded at the top of the third round when the Cowboys traded up to the final pick of the fourth round to get him at No. 146 overall.
"There are some times that you go, 'Maybe we didn't get this guy right,' but then you go back and you trust it," McClay said. "The thing you saw in this draft, when everybody doesn't have all of the information and the extra road talk and all these other things, and then the media and everybody else doesn't really know ... that kind of sets a we-think kind of a board. And what happens is when you're all together, there's more of an us-think board compared to what everybody else does. There was more concentration on what we value most, what we knew."

From experience: McCarthy said he has a plan for a training camp in Oxnard, California, and one for a training camp at The Star in case the coronavirus pandemic prevents the Cowboys from going west. McCarthy never made it to Oxnard last month to visit the Cowboys' training camp home, but he is using his time in Green Bay as a way to be ready with the Cowboys. In 2011, the NFL had a lockout that greatly altered the offseason.

"There were a number of times throughout that spring that it was like, 'OK, hey, it's going to happen. It's going to end here,' so we were running around getting ready for the offseason program," McCarthy said. "Then it was going to happen again and now you're getting ready for a minicamp. So a lot of that time and energy and planning went to waste because obviously the lockout didn't end until, I think, July. So looking back at that experience is something that I addressed with our administrative staff, and I said we're going to look at it from the other way. We're going to start training camp and look back to the offseason."

Crawford's recovery: A little more than a month ago, defensive end Tyrone Crawford said he had a breakthrough in his recovery from double hip surgery.

"I was in the sauna, rolling out, doing all the stretches and everything you're supposed to do but really deep," Crawford said. "Just like any surgery, it takes time. With my Achilles [in 2012], it was like three games into that third year, and I just felt a whole bunch of cracking and popping and I felt like I got my explosion back. With this it was like literally a one-hour sequence where I started feeling great again. I was worried for a little bit, but overnight just started feeling good again."