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By Jon Machota 13m ago
With the significant involvement the Cowboys’ coaching staff has in the organization’s draft process, it was important that vice president of player personnel Will McClay and new head coach Mike McCarthy hit it off early on.
McClay vividly remembers three words McCarthy said to him during one of their first interactions after the former Packers head coach was hired in January: “Players over system.”
“That rung a bell with me right away,” McClay said. “We just continued to talk, and we have a great relationship at this point because we talk all the time. We’ll pick up the phone and just talk about anything. We talk about our kids or about fishing or about whatever, and then it comes back to players.”
McClay, who has been running the Cowboys’ draft since 2014, had been used to scouting players that fit the system previous head coach Jason Garrett had in place. McCarthy has made it clear that he wants the best players and he’ll fit his offensive and defensive systems around the talent.
“I think it’s unique from the standpoint of, you’ve got 10 years and you form habits so your brain reserves energy,” McClay said of adapting to a new coaching staff. “Well, with a new situation, we all had to activate our stuff more and communicate more. ‘What did you mean by this? What did you mean by that? How do you do this? How do you do that?’ So we had to explain the process and then re-think the process to make sure that all those things matched.
“It was interesting because, typically when you have new coaches or a new staff and you explain the way you’re doing things from a grading standpoint, you usually have outliers. A coach is not going to like this guy, he doesn’t really understand the scale, or he really likes a guy and he’s going to put him too high or too low … The players, we gave them the grade, and the grades that came back (from the coaches), they were very close to where the scouting department, who’s been doing it forever, saw these guys. So there was a unique synergy within that process.”
The results were a seven-player draft class that has received rave reviews from those inside the building as well as critics and fans on the outside.
McClay is hesitant to get too excited. He’s been through too many drafts to know it’s hard to discern if one was successful this soon. Time will tell, but Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said it’s the best he’s felt right after a draft since 2005, when Dallas had two first-round picks and landed six starting-caliber players, which included future Pro Football Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware.
To break down the seven picks the Cowboys made last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, here’s a brief summary of some of the comments from McClay and McCarthy.
First-round pick, No. 17 overall: CeeDee Lamb, WR, Oklahoma.
McCarthy: “I think he is a natural fit for how we want to play offense. He is dynamic with the ball in his hands. I really enjoy the way he goes after the football.”
McClay: “There is position of need and there is best player available. You are always going into the draft thinking about your needs, but wanting to get the best player available. I think coming through the process, it kind of shows that that’s the case with CeeDee coming to us. He was the best available player.”
Second-round pick, No. 51 overall: Trevon Diggs, CB, Alabama.
McCarthy: “We are putting such an emphasis on turnover ratio, that will be a big part of our daily focus as a football team, and this young man goes and gets the football.”
McClay: “His ability to go get the ball. No. 1, it’s an extremely difficult feel to go get interceptions when you’re playing press coverage like he did in college, with your back to the ball. It’s a unique skill set that you have to have. And you have to see that repeatedly to feel like that’s something that’s normal that a guy can do just out of habit as opposed to do surprise thing. Both Diggs and Robinson did that at a high level in college.”
Third-round pick, No. 82 overall: Neville Gallimore, DT, Oklahoma.
McCarthy: “The first thing that jumps out to me on the film is sideline-to-sideline. He is active in his pursuit and his ability to penetrate. Very good fit for our defensive line room.”
McClay: “You’ve got to get after the quarterback. You’ve got to be able to play in space. So with Gallimore, when you have a 300-pounder that has the athleticism, that runs as fast as some quarterbacks, that makes your defense faster, that makes your defense more athletic.”
Fourth-round pick, No. 123 overall: Reggie Robinson II, CB, Tulsa.
McCarthy: “I remember the first time I watched tape on him at Tulsa, and you are wondering why he is not part of the conversation with the other [top cornerbacks] up there in the first two rounds.”
McClay: “In a league that’s throwing the ball 65 percent of the time and receivers are getting bigger and faster and stronger, we felt like with the new things that we’re going to be doing and what we were looking for, we needed some guys to be press corners, No. 1. Then the other thing was guys that could affect the ball. … We felt that this was a good draft at the top four rounds for those big long corners.”
Fourth-round pick, No. 146 overall: Tyler Biadasz, C, Wisconsin.
McCarthy: “As far as running the show, making the calls, [he can do both]. He plays with great power, you can see it in the angles. He is a natural center.”
McClay: “As we found out with Travis (Frederick) a couple years ago, you never know what’s going to happen. You want to be as best prepared for that as possible. What better way to do that than a guy that fits all the criteria that we’re looking for in an offensive lineman that can play center and guard, and at a value that we feel like we can get a high return on our investment.”
Fifth-round pick, No. 179 overall: Bradlee Anae, DE, Utah.
McCarthy: “Tough, hard-nosed. Plays the game the right way. He gives us flexibility on the defensive front. Excellent addition.”
McClay: “When you rush the passer and were on a great defense like he was, and you have the results he had and the stats he had in college, then you watch how he got those sacks and those pressures and affected the defense. … We felt like he played faster than his 40 time.”
Seventh round pick, No. 231 overall: Ben DiNucci, QB, James Madison.
McCarthy: “Very accurate. He reminds me of a young Marc Bulger, someone that just, as you look for comparables, he is a young man that has played the position his whole life.”
(McClay was not asked about DiNucci during a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.)
Immediately after the draft, Jones called McClay the MVP, specifically for the way he handled the team’s preparation during the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. All 32 NFL teams were forced to change their usual draft prep over the previous month, significantly decreasing the amount of time spent with individual players. The typical college pro days and individual workouts and visits to team headquarters were replaced by video-conferencing calls.
McClay, however, would not accept the MVP accolades. He shifted the focus to the work done by the team’s scouting staff.
“Very, very excited to get what we feel like are good players that fit us,” McClay said. “I was more impressed by the team effort from ownership, the GM, head coach, everybody jumping into this situation and pulling off something that people thought would be so difficult and may have had apprehensions about early. But being dedicated to a plan and having commitment from all. I can’t say enough about (the scouts). The MVP of the draft is the scouts, to me. 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 meetings, they get to express their feelings about a player and do all that in front of ownership and that’s the way we’ve typically done that. Because of the conditions, we weren’t able to do that.
“They gave me and the college management staff all the information and trusted us to give that information to ownership. Ownership took that information, the coaches listened to all that. That’s what I was most proud of when we got off that call (at the end of the draft). 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 excited about after the draft, the work of other people.”
With the significant involvement the Cowboys’ coaching staff has in the organization’s draft process, it was important that vice president of player personnel Will McClay and new head coach Mike McCarthy hit it off early on.
McClay vividly remembers three words McCarthy said to him during one of their first interactions after the former Packers head coach was hired in January: “Players over system.”
“That rung a bell with me right away,” McClay said. “We just continued to talk, and we have a great relationship at this point because we talk all the time. We’ll pick up the phone and just talk about anything. We talk about our kids or about fishing or about whatever, and then it comes back to players.”
McClay, who has been running the Cowboys’ draft since 2014, had been used to scouting players that fit the system previous head coach Jason Garrett had in place. McCarthy has made it clear that he wants the best players and he’ll fit his offensive and defensive systems around the talent.
“I think it’s unique from the standpoint of, you’ve got 10 years and you form habits so your brain reserves energy,” McClay said of adapting to a new coaching staff. “Well, with a new situation, we all had to activate our stuff more and communicate more. ‘What did you mean by this? What did you mean by that? How do you do this? How do you do that?’ So we had to explain the process and then re-think the process to make sure that all those things matched.
“It was interesting because, typically when you have new coaches or a new staff and you explain the way you’re doing things from a grading standpoint, you usually have outliers. A coach is not going to like this guy, he doesn’t really understand the scale, or he really likes a guy and he’s going to put him too high or too low … The players, we gave them the grade, and the grades that came back (from the coaches), they were very close to where the scouting department, who’s been doing it forever, saw these guys. So there was a unique synergy within that process.”
The results were a seven-player draft class that has received rave reviews from those inside the building as well as critics and fans on the outside.
McClay is hesitant to get too excited. He’s been through too many drafts to know it’s hard to discern if one was successful this soon. Time will tell, but Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said it’s the best he’s felt right after a draft since 2005, when Dallas had two first-round picks and landed six starting-caliber players, which included future Pro Football Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware.
To break down the seven picks the Cowboys made last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, here’s a brief summary of some of the comments from McClay and McCarthy.
First-round pick, No. 17 overall: CeeDee Lamb, WR, Oklahoma.
McCarthy: “I think he is a natural fit for how we want to play offense. He is dynamic with the ball in his hands. I really enjoy the way he goes after the football.”
McClay: “There is position of need and there is best player available. You are always going into the draft thinking about your needs, but wanting to get the best player available. I think coming through the process, it kind of shows that that’s the case with CeeDee coming to us. He was the best available player.”
Second-round pick, No. 51 overall: Trevon Diggs, CB, Alabama.
McCarthy: “We are putting such an emphasis on turnover ratio, that will be a big part of our daily focus as a football team, and this young man goes and gets the football.”
McClay: “His ability to go get the ball. No. 1, it’s an extremely difficult feel to go get interceptions when you’re playing press coverage like he did in college, with your back to the ball. It’s a unique skill set that you have to have. And you have to see that repeatedly to feel like that’s something that’s normal that a guy can do just out of habit as opposed to do surprise thing. Both Diggs and Robinson did that at a high level in college.”
Third-round pick, No. 82 overall: Neville Gallimore, DT, Oklahoma.
McCarthy: “The first thing that jumps out to me on the film is sideline-to-sideline. He is active in his pursuit and his ability to penetrate. Very good fit for our defensive line room.”
McClay: “You’ve got to get after the quarterback. You’ve got to be able to play in space. So with Gallimore, when you have a 300-pounder that has the athleticism, that runs as fast as some quarterbacks, that makes your defense faster, that makes your defense more athletic.”
Fourth-round pick, No. 123 overall: Reggie Robinson II, CB, Tulsa.
McCarthy: “I remember the first time I watched tape on him at Tulsa, and you are wondering why he is not part of the conversation with the other [top cornerbacks] up there in the first two rounds.”
McClay: “In a league that’s throwing the ball 65 percent of the time and receivers are getting bigger and faster and stronger, we felt like with the new things that we’re going to be doing and what we were looking for, we needed some guys to be press corners, No. 1. Then the other thing was guys that could affect the ball. … We felt that this was a good draft at the top four rounds for those big long corners.”
Fourth-round pick, No. 146 overall: Tyler Biadasz, C, Wisconsin.
McCarthy: “As far as running the show, making the calls, [he can do both]. He plays with great power, you can see it in the angles. He is a natural center.”
McClay: “As we found out with Travis (Frederick) a couple years ago, you never know what’s going to happen. You want to be as best prepared for that as possible. What better way to do that than a guy that fits all the criteria that we’re looking for in an offensive lineman that can play center and guard, and at a value that we feel like we can get a high return on our investment.”
Fifth-round pick, No. 179 overall: Bradlee Anae, DE, Utah.
McCarthy: “Tough, hard-nosed. Plays the game the right way. He gives us flexibility on the defensive front. Excellent addition.”
McClay: “When you rush the passer and were on a great defense like he was, and you have the results he had and the stats he had in college, then you watch how he got those sacks and those pressures and affected the defense. … We felt like he played faster than his 40 time.”
Seventh round pick, No. 231 overall: Ben DiNucci, QB, James Madison.
McCarthy: “Very accurate. He reminds me of a young Marc Bulger, someone that just, as you look for comparables, he is a young man that has played the position his whole life.”
(McClay was not asked about DiNucci during a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.)
Immediately after the draft, Jones called McClay the MVP, specifically for the way he handled the team’s preparation during the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. All 32 NFL teams were forced to change their usual draft prep over the previous month, significantly decreasing the amount of time spent with individual players. The typical college pro days and individual workouts and visits to team headquarters were replaced by video-conferencing calls.
McClay, however, would not accept the MVP accolades. He shifted the focus to the work done by the team’s scouting staff.
“Very, very excited to get what we feel like are good players that fit us,” McClay said. “I was more impressed by the team effort from ownership, the GM, head coach, everybody jumping into this situation and pulling off something that people thought would be so difficult and may have had apprehensions about early. But being dedicated to a plan and having commitment from all. I can’t say enough about (the scouts). The MVP of the draft is the scouts, to me. 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 meetings, they get to express their feelings about a player and do all that in front of ownership and that’s the way we’ve typically done that. Because of the conditions, we weren’t able to do that.
“They gave me and the college management staff all the information and trusted us to give that information to ownership. Ownership took that information, the coaches listened to all that. That’s what I was most proud of when we got off that call (at the end of the draft). 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 excited about after the draft, the work of other people.”
