Speaker 1: This is the Dallas Cowboys dot Com Draft Show. Cowboys
Speaker 1: your war room for incenter news and draft analysis from
Speaker 1: deep within the confines of Cowboys Headquarters at the Star
Speaker 1: in Fresco, Dallas Cowboys Select Lad and now your hosts,
Speaker 1: Dane Brugler, David Hellman and Brian brought us. Well, you
Speaker 1: didn't think you could get rid of us that fast,
Speaker 1: did you? After seventeen hours and twenty five minutes of
Speaker 1: draft coverage all weekend, We're back for a one final
Speaker 1: episode of the Draft Show for the season. It's Brian
Speaker 1: brought us, Dane Brugler, and David Hellman with a special
Speaker 1: guest here. Guys, we're very fortunate to have the vice president,
Speaker 1: a player personnel I think, one of the great personnel
Speaker 1: men in this league. You know, a guy that we
Speaker 1: all have a lot of respect for. I know guys
Speaker 1: around the league have a lot of respect for him
Speaker 1: as well. And it's Will McClay and Will welcome to
Speaker 1: the program. Um. Excited to have you for a number
Speaker 1: of reasons. Because we we had an opportunity this past
Speaker 1: draft with with no first round pick, there was a
Speaker 1: lot I mean, we as a group, we were having
Speaker 1: to discuss h the you know what direction could this
Speaker 1: team go? Well, you know, without that pick, how do
Speaker 1: you find a way to map out a road to
Speaker 1: get to fifty eight and then to ninety and then
Speaker 1: too the picks after that? When you were setting your
Speaker 1: board and stuff like that and looking at your board,
Speaker 1: you obviously you went through and said, okay, we're gonna
Speaker 1: rate these guys from one to one fifty and play
Speaker 1: it like a normal draft. But was there anything different
Speaker 1: that you had to do when you're when you're making
Speaker 1: that direction, There is there anything different you say, Okay,
Speaker 1: I got to make sure that I got to cover
Speaker 1: this or I got to cover this. Without the first
Speaker 1: round pick, it was any different. No, we addressed it
Speaker 1: the same as if we had a first round pick,
Speaker 1: because first of all, you never know what's going to happen,
Speaker 1: and then you have to look at every draft the
Speaker 1: same what we try and do, and you know, we
Speaker 1: talk about the Garret process, but we it's the same
Speaker 1: thing that we have. It's a process that you go through,
Speaker 1: you grade your players, you rate them from you know,
Speaker 1: top to the bottom, right, and to have that consistency
Speaker 1: within the process. Yeah, Well, we were sitting there because
Speaker 1: we're trying to We're sitting there trying to map out, okay,
Speaker 1: how they're going to get to fifty eight, you know,
Speaker 1: and then and we just kept throwing names and but
Speaker 1: it is it so it's not a wider scope. It's
Speaker 1: really you just say, Okay, we're focused in on these guys.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's the first round, guys, it's the
Speaker 1: second round guys. There was really no deviation from that
Speaker 1: at all. There's no deviation from it. The thing that
Speaker 1: changed a little bit is, uh, you know, when you
Speaker 1: have a pick in the first round, you're trying to
Speaker 1: look to see where you're top guys or guys that
Speaker 1: you targeted, they're gonna fall pay a little bit more
Speaker 1: attention to the chatter around and whatnot. But uh, you
Speaker 1: keep it the same. Uh. You know, it's when we
Speaker 1: had the fourth pick with Zeke, well we're picking early,
Speaker 1: you know, different level there. I think what we did
Speaker 1: during the process we kind of changed our approach as
Speaker 1: opposed to bringing in guys that we're going to be
Speaker 1: drafted in the top fifteen, we felt like we kind
Speaker 1: of scattered it around a little bit to you know,
Speaker 1: the thirty visit guys to where the coaches were, you know,
Speaker 1: who they were going to go see where we put
Speaker 1: our resources, not essentially at the top fifteen to twenty guys,
Speaker 1: but kind of filtered it through the draft at different levels.
Speaker 1: Is that a hard conversation to have trying to evaluate
Speaker 1: you know, again, you don't pick till fifty eight, so
Speaker 1: you're trying to evaluate, like, is this worth the resources.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Abram comes to mind, a guy that y'all obviously
Speaker 1: liked a lot, and you know, you're like, this guy
Speaker 1: probably won't be there, but we still want to take
Speaker 1: a look at him. I mean, yeah, just kind of
Speaker 1: weighing those risks because as you see the draft, the
Speaker 1: NFL draft has changed so much over the past five
Speaker 1: to eight years, where you know, when the cap changed
Speaker 1: and you don't pay rookies as much money and all that. Well,
Speaker 1: you're also seeing the value of the trade chart and
Speaker 1: that stuff. So a lot of that stuff is altered.
Speaker 1: It's changed. It's not the way that it's not the
Speaker 1: NFL that we grew up in, where people stood where
Speaker 1: they were, they had their picks or so you don't
Speaker 1: know where things are gonna go. So Abram was anywhere
Speaker 1: in our minds from fifteen to in the second round,
Speaker 1: depending upon what people were looking for. So that was
Speaker 1: the calculated kind of risk that we took in looking
Speaker 1: at guys and when we brought them in and who
Speaker 1: we spent those resources on. What you thought about is
Speaker 1: that maybe a trade up situation too? That if you
Speaker 1: if you think Abram might be saying, okay, he said
Speaker 1: top fifteen, but what if Abram got to forty, say,
Speaker 1: I mean and you're sitting at fifty eight, do you
Speaker 1: bring guys in thinking okay, maybe we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: maybe trade up for this guy. So I need to
Speaker 1: know that background information. Absolutely, you got to be prepared
Speaker 1: for every situation. So again, those guys that you felt
Speaker 1: like we're first to top a second round, when we're
Speaker 1: down towards the bottom of the second let's look at
Speaker 1: some of those guys at positions of need or players
Speaker 1: we really liked and wanted to get in front of
Speaker 1: and kind of look at it there. So when you
Speaker 1: talk about the you know, potential of trading up, well,
Speaker 1: we go through the exercise, we look at the points
Speaker 1: and you know, what do you have to give up
Speaker 1: and where we ad and the contracts in the future
Speaker 1: and all those things kind of went into putting this
Speaker 1: picture together. How much do you look at other teams
Speaker 1: and who they bring in for thirty visits and interest? Like,
Speaker 1: how does that work in terms of the process of
Speaker 1: tracking all that information to understand Okay, well we need
Speaker 1: to get in front of this guy if or this team,
Speaker 1: if we want this player. How does that process work
Speaker 1: for you? Yeah, we look at you know, the thirty visits.
Speaker 1: I mean there's a number of different things at track
Speaker 1: where we track our you know, on our own. It's
Speaker 1: the guys that we bring in where they're going. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, there's some sources out there that tell you
Speaker 1: who's bringing who in for visits and you kind of
Speaker 1: you know now and analytics get involved in it too.
Speaker 1: We go through a number of different processes to go okay,
Speaker 1: systems who guys have drafted da da da da da,
Speaker 1: and say okay, here are the guys that you know
Speaker 1: kind of we target based on doing all that research.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you something about the Okay, you don't
Speaker 1: have a first round pick, but can you walk us
Speaker 1: through though the determination of coming about making the trade
Speaker 1: for a Maury Cooper? I mean, at what point in
Speaker 1: time do you know you start off the season, you're
Speaker 1: three and four. It was it something that you saw
Speaker 1: very early in the season. You said, man, I've got
Speaker 1: to get these coaches some help here, and you know,
Speaker 1: and then maybe your pro guys, you know, get involved,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you're like, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: this is how this is going to this is how
Speaker 1: it's going to go down. Because I've been with Jerry
Speaker 1: Jones when he didn't have first round picks two years
Speaker 1: in a row. So whatever you did to make that work,
Speaker 1: congratulations because that is like, again, Stephen talked about it,
Speaker 1: you need an Act of Congress, and I've seen him
Speaker 1: agonize in draft rooms without a first round pick. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you've felt that too yourself. But talk about though
Speaker 1: you made a big commitment to go and get a
Speaker 1: Maury Cooper and to give up a first round pick,
Speaker 1: When did you make that determination that you needed to
Speaker 1: go do something. I think we're always evaluating our roster,
Speaker 1: and so we went into last year receiver by committee.
Speaker 1: We brought these guys in and you know, there was injuries,
Speaker 1: there was you know that the plan didn't work right.
Speaker 1: And if you put your head in the sand and say, okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna, you know, out some way rectify it. But
Speaker 1: it's also about opportunity. So we're all, you know again,
Speaker 1: just like right now, we're always looking for ways to
Speaker 1: improve our roster. So when the situation came about and
Speaker 1: they were talking about different receivers and trade deadline was
Speaker 1: coming up, we had done our homework. We had guys
Speaker 1: that were coming out of contract or people who were trying,
Speaker 1: you know, looking at the trends they were moving guys
Speaker 1: da da da da dah. And then you look at
Speaker 1: it and then there was Amari Cooper and there's a
Speaker 1: couple of other guys that names that were being thrown around,
Speaker 1: and so we looked at how do you improve that position?
Speaker 1: The Amar situation came up, So then we go and
Speaker 1: we look at you know, our our our scouting grades
Speaker 1: and what's coming and you know where we are there
Speaker 1: and what's the right opportunity cost to make that pick.
Speaker 1: So we make pick and then you know, we we
Speaker 1: go to a string of success and we felt like
Speaker 1: at the time when we were looking at it, is
Speaker 1: there going to be a first round receiver to the
Speaker 1: level of Amari Cooper. And then we went through everything else.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, if he's twenty eight or twenty
Speaker 1: nine years old, is that something that's beneficial for the
Speaker 1: long term of the team, you know, as opposed to
Speaker 1: right now. And so we try and look at all
Speaker 1: those things that way, and through the course of planning
Speaker 1: with Stephen and Jerry, when we talked about it, we
Speaker 1: sat there and we looked at it. Okay, what's the
Speaker 1: opportunity cost and you know, hey, it could be if
Speaker 1: we don't correct the ship, it could be a high
Speaker 1: first round pick. Sure, you know, all of those things
Speaker 1: kind of went into it, and you roll the dice
Speaker 1: and you look at a twenty four year old guy
Speaker 1: who's different, you know, and you go through this draft
Speaker 1: and every draft and looking for those top ten players
Speaker 1: that will be difference makers in your organization. So if
Speaker 1: you have an opportunity to do that, you just received
Speaker 1: the benefit of a first round pick earlier rather than later. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Dane came in. Dane evaluates about five hundred more
Speaker 1: players for us and stuff like that, and I catch up.
Speaker 1: Dane very early said no receivers, I don't see a
Speaker 1: first round. This was very early in January. You know,
Speaker 1: he's evaluating we're going to the Senior Bowl and going
Speaker 1: into the combine and stuff in Dangels, I haven't seen
Speaker 1: a first round receiver yet, and then Dane very astutely says,
Speaker 1: there's not a receiver on that board that's even close
Speaker 1: to a Mary Cooper. So all of a sudden, now
Speaker 1: you're sitting there now by what you just said, the
Speaker 1: justification is we had to have a receiver. We weren't
Speaker 1: going to get a receiver even if we had a
Speaker 1: top ten pick. We're not going to get the right
Speaker 1: receiver here. So so then you also look at the
Speaker 1: impact of first round receivers when they come into the NFL.
Speaker 1: There hasn't been a great deal of talk about they
Speaker 1: have to learn the game, right, you know, guys with
Speaker 1: all the ability, and you know, everybody goes to the
Speaker 1: draft process and you got the draft nick saying oh,
Speaker 1: this guy should go here and there and he's going
Speaker 1: to be great. Yeah, that position is really hard to
Speaker 1: impact the NFL, especially the way college football is being
Speaker 1: played now. Yeah, there's no press coverage. They don't read coverage.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of RPOs. So the windows and the
Speaker 1: landmarks and the ability to run the route tree, they're
Speaker 1: not there. So there's that development in that process too,
Speaker 1: So that's going to take two sometimes three years before
Speaker 1: you see the benefit of that pick. Was there was
Speaker 1: there some consideration, Scum, that was there some considerate consideration?
Speaker 1: And I come from a program in Green Bay and
Speaker 1: other places where you I always follow teams that had
Speaker 1: new coaches, new general managers. And did you maybe take
Speaker 1: a little bit of advantage of the Raiders situation with
Speaker 1: Gruten being a new coach and you know, maybe some
Speaker 1: flux the general manager that you said, okay, we can
Speaker 1: I know, you give a first round pick, but they're
Speaker 1: willingness to give up a player of that quality though.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's pretty significant on their part, no question.
Speaker 1: But you gave up a premium pick. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 1: we did. But that's but that's what we do. As
Speaker 1: you look at like right now, you know, when we
Speaker 1: were going into the free agency process, um, and we're
Speaker 1: looking at after the draft. There's new regimes. They want
Speaker 1: their people, right um. And and so you're aware of
Speaker 1: those rosters and those positions of need and the personalities
Speaker 1: of those people that are coaching or running those teams
Speaker 1: and looking at their track record and everything else, and
Speaker 1: know when to start up a conversation if it's worthy
Speaker 1: of it. All that stuff, I totally lost my Oh no,
Speaker 1: I remember now, no, no, less, You're good. Thank you
Speaker 1: don't have that rights education and y'all, y'all have said
Speaker 1: this a couple dozen times since you traded for Amari.
Speaker 1: You know you looked at it. You know there's not
Speaker 1: a first round receiver. There's not a guy that's on
Speaker 1: his caliber. But maybe it's just me. I'm fascinated by
Speaker 1: the actual mechanics of how that works. So you gotta
Speaker 1: I mean, you got a million things going on all
Speaker 1: the time. You're worried about your roster during the season.
Speaker 1: How does that work? I mean do you do you
Speaker 1: get your scouts on the phone? Do you? I mean,
Speaker 1: how do you go about gathering that information that you
Speaker 1: know that when Stephen and Jerry ask you for that information?
Speaker 1: It's you just plan ahead. I mean, you look ahead.
Speaker 1: The process of building the football team is three six,
Speaker 1: especially nowadays, and so you look at it, and you know,
Speaker 1: the pro side, we grade every player on every team
Speaker 1: during the season. We look at that. We have an
Speaker 1: updated database and we make sure we know who's who.
Speaker 1: We look at the depth, we look at who they drafted,
Speaker 1: so we're prepared for that. So the situation comes about, Okay,
Speaker 1: pro guys, was our last pro grade on him? You
Speaker 1: know how much has he played this year? You look
Speaker 1: at statistical things. We have our analytics that we look
Speaker 1: at all that stuff. And so when the different situations
Speaker 1: present themselves, now it's informant Jerry and Stephen as soon
Speaker 1: as I possibly know something so that we can start
Speaker 1: discussing and saying, Okay, how does this affect this? And
Speaker 1: you know what's our game plan. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: an ongoing thing. And I think my position here is
Speaker 1: a little bit different than most where the general managers
Speaker 1: out worried about the college and dada, da, da da,
Speaker 1: and you don't know your team. The benefit of the
Speaker 1: way that we're structured is I'm here most of the time.
Speaker 1: I know our team, our team, what we're looking for,
Speaker 1: you know the differences, and you know what's playing in
Speaker 1: the league. Right. That's one of the hardest things for
Speaker 1: people who our lifeblood is the college draft. But if
Speaker 1: you don't know your team, or you're reliant upon the
Speaker 1: coaches or whatever, there's a different way of looking at it.
Speaker 1: The way that we're structured. Here, I'm looking at it
Speaker 1: globally and I'm around and I can have those conversations
Speaker 1: so that the communication can be better and we're ahead
Speaker 1: of those opportunities or at least there when those opportunities
Speaker 1: come up. Yeah, I've always found the guys, the general
Speaker 1: managers that have the pro backgrounds because college. Sometimes these
Speaker 1: college general managers and nothing against these guys that are
Speaker 1: college guys and become general managers. They don't know who's
Speaker 1: playing in the league right, they don't know who the
Speaker 1: nickel corners with the Atlanta Falcons. They don't know who
Speaker 1: the backup right tackles at Minnesota. And sometimes though, when
Speaker 1: you're building your team, all you're thinking about is the draft,
Speaker 1: and give me more picks, Give me more picks, give
Speaker 1: me more picks, and stays saying, wait a minute, I've
Speaker 1: got to find a way to compete with my division now,
Speaker 1: and then I've got to find a way to compete
Speaker 1: with some of the other teams around the league. So
Speaker 1: to me, the guys that have the pro backgrounds are better.
Speaker 1: And I shouldn't say this, I think are better general
Speaker 1: managers because they're better prepared to handle the situations, not
Speaker 1: because no, no, no, no, no, because I here's a
Speaker 1: guy that was on the pro side of things. I
Speaker 1: started Green bayd in college and with the pro. But
Speaker 1: I always respected the guys that were and again some
Speaker 1: of my best friends, you know, Thomas Demitrof, John Snyder,
Speaker 1: those guys, we're all college. Snyder was a pro guy
Speaker 1: at one time and he knew the league, and I
Speaker 1: think that helps you as you trying to build your
Speaker 1: team and answer those questions. This is why you're able
Speaker 1: to make a trade, I think for a first round guy,
Speaker 1: a wide receiver, because you know him at Oakland. Okay,
Speaker 1: I've got the college reports, but now I know, wait,
Speaker 1: I've seen in the league. Yeah, I've seen this guy
Speaker 1: and what he's done. And okay, the fact he's a
Speaker 1: twenty four year old guy makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: And the college. In the college side of it, you
Speaker 1: are always projecting. I think the key is having a
Speaker 1: sense of what you're projecting that player into as opposed
Speaker 1: to his upside. But you've got to project them into something.
Speaker 1: You know, it's easy to say that this guy is
Speaker 1: a great receiver and he belongs here. Well, if it
Speaker 1: doesn't fit the system, or if the personality doesn't fit
Speaker 1: with who you're putting him into or whatever. I feel
Speaker 1: like all of those things have to go into because
Speaker 1: we're taking people from one situation putting them into another,
Speaker 1: so you better be aware of what you're putting them into. Well,
Speaker 1: let me ask you this. So it just about a
Speaker 1: mare though, and again I'm gonna get into some of
Speaker 1: these other draft picks as well that you made. But
Speaker 1: as far as a mare, you know, I remember my
Speaker 1: experience of working with the Cowboys is that Jerry and
Speaker 1: Stephen really relied on opinions from outside and I know
Speaker 1: we still hear that. You know, oh, we talked to
Speaker 1: this guy, or we talked to this guy, we talked
Speaker 1: to coach Sabin and all that has that change over
Speaker 1: the year. Is it really more about your opinion? And
Speaker 1: again I'm not trying to short change your opinion. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to say that, is it more about watching the
Speaker 1: tape and hav an opinion within, whether it's Alex Loomis, yourself, whoever.
Speaker 1: Is that kind of way that Joneses are now operating more.
Speaker 1: I think we're getting getting better that they trust us.
Speaker 1: And what I tell our group is so I don't
Speaker 1: know if they trusted me. That's probably why I'm doing
Speaker 1: radio right now. No, it's it's it's evolved into uh,
Speaker 1: the you know, I keep saying the process right, the
Speaker 1: way that we do things, and not trying to slant
Speaker 1: one way or the other. I want to know. We're
Speaker 1: the lawyers. We're presenting the case, and my objective in
Speaker 1: being that lawyer is I'm presenting all the facts, good, bad,
Speaker 1: or indifferent, right, and they make the decision based off
Speaker 1: of all the information as to what's best for the organization.
Speaker 1: That's them. You know, the job that we're tasked with.
Speaker 1: So the guys go out. We have a specific way
Speaker 1: of doing things, and as long as we do it
Speaker 1: that way, you know, the information that's coming in as
Speaker 1: a certain way, you know that we've checked all the
Speaker 1: boxes that we can. That they're getting information that is pure,
Speaker 1: it's raw and uncut, and now you make the decision
Speaker 1: based off of that. You TALKO, Go ahead, Dan, I'm sorry, Well, No,
Speaker 1: I was going to kind of swing it to this
Speaker 1: draft class and with Tristan Hill, that's what it's about
Speaker 1: to coach. You know, it's He's really interesting because you know,
Speaker 1: on our end, we can watch it we can see
Speaker 1: what he does, what maybe he needs to work on
Speaker 1: things like that. But you know, one of the most
Speaker 1: fascinating parts is a player's journey, and you know everything
Speaker 1: goes through and with Tristan Hill, part of his journey
Speaker 1: is only starting one game last year. And you know,
Speaker 1: football character, personal character, that's something that is a big
Speaker 1: part of every evaluation. And so how handicap there right exactly?
Speaker 1: And that's something from the outside looking in. We only
Speaker 1: have so much information and so it makes it difficult
Speaker 1: on our end. But how does that work? From you?
Speaker 1: Is it just trusting your scouts that they're doing thorough
Speaker 1: enough information when they're on campus, and trusting your coaches
Speaker 1: when they go and work out at a pro day
Speaker 1: and they're talking to the right people. How does the
Speaker 1: character conversation? How does that work within the building? It's
Speaker 1: it's everything. It's to try and find out as much
Speaker 1: as we can about the player, especially if we you know,
Speaker 1: you can turn on the tape and you can watch
Speaker 1: it and see all the traits that you like, but
Speaker 1: now you you want to dig into who it is
Speaker 1: and we talk about football character, and so our scouts
Speaker 1: go and they're ask all the questions that everybody else asks.
Speaker 1: And you know, each scout is in an area, they
Speaker 1: have their sources that they draw from, and you know,
Speaker 1: the coaches are going to talk to the coaches and
Speaker 1: people that they're familiar with. Again, it's about gathering all
Speaker 1: that information and then being aware that you know the
Speaker 1: people that you talk to. We tend to go talk
Speaker 1: to people that are like us, that we're comfortable with.
Speaker 1: So I know that that's upset of information I get
Speaker 1: from this guy. He probably talked to somebody that's like him.
Speaker 1: The coach is going to talk to a coach that's
Speaker 1: like him that sees it differently. I'm going to talk
Speaker 1: to somebody else. And then you pull all that together
Speaker 1: and then you bring the kid in and if you
Speaker 1: like him, and you start to figure out who he
Speaker 1: is for your own sake, you know, now we make
Speaker 1: an organizational evaluation of who the guy is. Who do
Speaker 1: you know, do we want him? What's he all about?
Speaker 1: And take into account. Okay, twenty years old, twenty one
Speaker 1: years old. And I always say this is if I
Speaker 1: go back to when all of us were sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen,
Speaker 1: twenty years old, and you know, be doing and then
Speaker 1: you look at our society is a little bit different.
Speaker 1: If you're a star athlete and things happen, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a certain level of whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call it, that you get away with, or a
Speaker 1: certain feeling that you have, and so we all have
Speaker 1: to be directed. So when we brought Tristan and we
Speaker 1: felt good about who he was, and then another sign
Speaker 1: is what people do, not only what they say to you,
Speaker 1: but what they do. You take into account the things
Speaker 1: that happened at Central Florida, but now his experience with us,
Speaker 1: that's really the strongest point that I can go off of.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, it's what did you do? How how did
Speaker 1: he interact? What? You know, what was his body language? Like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to for coach Marinelli to tell him, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: put on a coat. You come in here, and you
Speaker 1: represent yourself. Don't put on your best suit because it's
Speaker 1: you know that, but but but represent yourself the right
Speaker 1: way and show you want to be here. The kid
Speaker 1: did that. It's spending his twenty first birthday in a
Speaker 1: hotel room with ride um, you know, having conversations with
Speaker 1: him and sitting and asking him about those things and
Speaker 1: looking at him in his eye and going, hey, I
Speaker 1: believe him or I don't believe him. And that's so
Speaker 1: much a part of the process, and it our evaluation
Speaker 1: of a player. It all depends on who's talking to
Speaker 1: him and what their interpretation of that conversation is to
Speaker 1: go going off that which and I know y'all turn
Speaker 1: over every stone, but kind of the flip side of
Speaker 1: that's Connor McGovern. He didn't come in. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, the scouts and coaches talk to him,
Speaker 1: but much less contact with him. How does that work?
Speaker 1: And you know, Jack Garrett said it during the draft,
Speaker 1: he's a blinking light, like it's just obvious that he's
Speaker 1: so much better than your other options. What's that conversation
Speaker 1: where you're like, we haven't really had as much experience
Speaker 1: with this guy, but this just feels like a no brainer.
Speaker 1: You know, you trust your people when you don't bring
Speaker 1: them in. And then if there's through every box that
Speaker 1: you check, if there's four people that go into that school,
Speaker 1: and there's so many varying opinions and we do you know,
Speaker 1: like you you use language like very good, good, you know, okay,
Speaker 1: but when all that stuff comes back as very good,
Speaker 1: excellent or rare in the way that we do things,
Speaker 1: and there's consistency in it. If we're all doing it
Speaker 1: the same way. We feel pretty good about that. And
Speaker 1: we spent time enough with him to know that there's
Speaker 1: you know, he fits right into what we do. Was
Speaker 1: this a move more will about we were kind of
Speaker 1: speculating and probably wrong, but we'll see that this was
Speaker 1: a move about something for the future. Or was this
Speaker 1: the fact that this guy was just so highly rated
Speaker 1: on your board that you said, hey, we've got to
Speaker 1: trust with these tags we put on this board, and
Speaker 1: that's our guy, and we're going to go that route.
Speaker 1: Damn the position, We're going to add a guy to
Speaker 1: the position and trying to improve this team. Even going
Speaker 1: that round, it's he was the blinking light that was there.
Speaker 1: You go through the process, and you know, you build
Speaker 1: a draft board and there are players that are taken
Speaker 1: from your draft board, and you know, after the first round,
Speaker 1: your draft board looks a lot different than even you
Speaker 1: thought it was going to look there at the end
Speaker 1: of it, Yeah, Thanksgiving, and we went through it, and
Speaker 1: you know, when you go through the draft, it's a
Speaker 1: combination a best player available in position to need and
Speaker 1: when you went through it, Yeah, you didn't need a
Speaker 1: cynder guard. Okay, we didn't think we needed one last
Speaker 1: year and Travis went through his deal. And if the
Speaker 1: best player is there, you're never one player away. If
Speaker 1: that player is there, and then the guys around it
Speaker 1: or at a lower level, and that might be they
Speaker 1: might be at that round value that we placed on him.
Speaker 1: But if we valued this guy this high and we
Speaker 1: did this work, why not take that shot and that
Speaker 1: opportunity to improve your strength to be prepared for what's
Speaker 1: coming down the line, not only what can happen today,
Speaker 1: but what's going to happen from a business standpoint down
Speaker 1: the line. If I could circle back real quick about Hill,
Speaker 1: a lot of folks in the draft world and the
Speaker 1: draft Knicks, we're talking about a need for safety here.
Speaker 1: We talked about, you know, Thornhill. We talked about Adderly,
Speaker 1: we talked about rap Rap. I felt like kind of
Speaker 1: eliminated him with the fourth seven. Some of the tape
Speaker 1: was really really good, but all those guys went behind
Speaker 1: you was there and we were kind of hearing some
Speaker 1: whispers of maybe that there was a discussion about Thornhill
Speaker 1: in the room when you went on the clock, and
Speaker 1: again you had your board set for how you were
Speaker 1: going to do it. But talk about that a little
Speaker 1: bit though that you know it was it the Hills
Speaker 1: trades and all just so much better than Thornhill that
Speaker 1: or was there something that swung that in a way
Speaker 1: that like, no, we've got it. We've just got to
Speaker 1: stick with what we've got right here. We followed our
Speaker 1: draft board and both of those guys are there, So
Speaker 1: we talked about the scenario and as the pit got closer,
Speaker 1: we're looking at it. So within the board you have
Speaker 1: positions evaluated as well. And so when you look at
Speaker 1: the scarcity of a three technique, right, and the value
Speaker 1: of that three technique to your defense compared to a
Speaker 1: safety and the impact that he can have on your team,
Speaker 1: and then what's behind that one safety or that defensive tackle?
Speaker 1: And you look at the league in the draft, how
Speaker 1: often have you seen that many defensive tackles go in
Speaker 1: the first round? Yeah, that's any guards your centers first round.
Speaker 1: And you look at it and you say, well, the
Speaker 1: game is changing with the RPOs and all the different things.
Speaker 1: The way that the game is, you still value the
Speaker 1: edge rushers. You value all those guys, but as the
Speaker 1: game changes, you look at your value of players and
Speaker 1: your scheme and does that change, and then what's available
Speaker 1: before or after that player at that position. You're kind
Speaker 1: of playing that game to see, Okay, if we do this,
Speaker 1: then what's after that? That's really part. So there's no
Speaker 1: question about even saying with all those players there you
Speaker 1: had a nice little stack. There was no no consideration
Speaker 1: of moving back at all. You said, oh, you know
Speaker 1: our guy, that's our guy right there. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about a couple of guys that sarry,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna sit right there and make this pick,
Speaker 1: right because those guys that we liked came down to
Speaker 1: that level. So now you look at you go, okay,
Speaker 1: do we move back. No, we don't want to lose
Speaker 1: this guy or this guy. Stay where we are after.
Speaker 1: You know, if you stay where you are, things come
Speaker 1: to you and you have an opportunity to address it,
Speaker 1: especially if your board is constructed the way that you
Speaker 1: like players, and then those players are there. This is
Speaker 1: a favorite pastime of fans and media, and you got
Speaker 1: to make the best decision and live with it. I
Speaker 1: get that, but as the years go on, do you
Speaker 1: keep an eye on wan Thornhill, maybe more so than
Speaker 1: other prospects. Just be I mean, that likely would have
Speaker 1: been that pick if it hadn't be interested and help me,
Speaker 1: you know, T. J. Watt is obviously a name that
Speaker 1: always gets mentioned with the Cowboys for that very reason. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you watch it and you bring it up, and you
Speaker 1: take all the experiences from the past to help you
Speaker 1: make decisions or at least consider those when you make
Speaker 1: the next decision. So we yeah, we look at I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna if we're good, look at Thorn and go, boy,
Speaker 1: he could have been ours because I feel happy with
Speaker 1: the guys that we have here. If we would have
Speaker 1: made that pick and he would have been here, we'd
Speaker 1: have been happy to have him. But you know, I
Speaker 1: can't worry about what's gone. Let's keep building this thing now.
Speaker 1: And this might be more philosophical than anything. But in
Speaker 1: the fourth round it was interesting because you had two
Speaker 1: picks within what eight picks of each other, say, there's
Speaker 1: two to four players really like. What goes into that
Speaker 1: decision about who to take first? Is it more just
Speaker 1: who we like the best, or is it do you
Speaker 1: look at who's picking in between those picks to say, okay,
Speaker 1: well maybe this guy has a better shot of lasting. Like,
Speaker 1: how does that conversation? Yeah, it's it's okay, who's who's
Speaker 1: before you? What if they drafted? Okay, what were their needs?
Speaker 1: What if they drafted? What's the likelihood of this happening
Speaker 1: or this happening. So you have those conversations, and you
Speaker 1: know a lot of times there's a based on the
Speaker 1: way the board is, that there might be a two
Speaker 1: to four or five point difference between the players are
Speaker 1: in the same round. So then that's you start considering
Speaker 1: position a need or best player available, and then again
Speaker 1: going down to okay, what's left? You know, what's the
Speaker 1: best spot? You know all those things, so it all
Speaker 1: goes into it. But you're looking at okay, what's the
Speaker 1: possibility of this guy getting down to us, what's the
Speaker 1: possibility of your second choice getting down to you if
Speaker 1: we move down or whatever. Then that all all that
Speaker 1: stuff kind of comes into play. So with Tony Pollard thing,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking back through it that you had to
Speaker 1: sweat that a little bit because then Bryce Love goes
Speaker 1: at four one twelve, Justice Hill goes at four one
Speaker 1: thirteen and now you're starting to think, oh, here comes
Speaker 1: the run. So was there any thought about with a
Speaker 1: little bit Dane's talking about, like, Okay, can we make
Speaker 1: a small move up or we just consider and ride
Speaker 1: this thing, because again, you if Bitty Snell went ahead
Speaker 1: of you too, so all of a sudden you have
Speaker 1: three running backs. Was there any thought alike, Okay, we've
Speaker 1: got it. We're just gonna let this thing ride, or
Speaker 1: are we gonna have to make a small move Our
Speaker 1: approach at that time was to let it ride because
Speaker 1: there were other running backs that we felt like it
Speaker 1: help us that we had in that same cluster. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a cluster, so you let it ride, and then
Speaker 1: you still have that other pick. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: when you give a pick away, you lose an opportunity
Speaker 1: to add another player to your roster, and especially if
Speaker 1: there's guys there that you like, you make the decision
Speaker 1: either move up and get the guy you want or
Speaker 1: there's enough depth. And you know, that was a thing
Speaker 1: about this draft there. I felt like there was a
Speaker 1: lot of guys. Uh more, the middle of this draft
Speaker 1: was stronger than the top part of it. So within
Speaker 1: that you still feel like you can get quality players
Speaker 1: to add to your roster with again the business side
Speaker 1: of it coming up as well as winning. Now when
Speaker 1: when we when we come back, I want to get
Speaker 1: into that if we can about the middle, middle part
Speaker 1: of this raft, because I'm going to ask you because
Speaker 1: I think it's I think we understand what the top
Speaker 1: half of the draft, or the top half of your
Speaker 1: selections were. I think I want to I understand what
Speaker 1: the bottom half. I just want to get into that
Speaker 1: middle part when you kind of went with the two
Speaker 1: Miami kids and the Texas A and M kid. So
Speaker 1: we'll be right back with the Draft Show after a
Speaker 1: short break. We'll get into that. And I want to
Speaker 1: want to talk to Will McClay. It's been three years
Speaker 1: since his twenty sixteen draft that he had with the Cowbus.
Speaker 1: I think one of the top drafts in Dallas Cowboys history.
Speaker 1: And we'll discuss that a little bit later on. So
Speaker 1: we'll take a break from the Draft Show. From the
Speaker 1: SWBC Mortgage Studios, Kaboo Texas is three days, six stages,
Speaker 1: over one hundred artists including The Killers, Minel, Richie, Leonard Skinyard,
Speaker 1: Miss Lauren Hill, Kid Rock oh Lennis Morrisset, Little Big Town,
Speaker 1: The Eight Beat Brothers, Counting Crows, Pitfall, Sting, The Black
Speaker 1: Eyed p and the list goes on. Don't miss Cabo
Speaker 1: Texas Single day and three day passes are on sale now.
Speaker 1: Visit Ka Boo Texas dot com to get your passes today.
Speaker 1: Your new apartment's big. Such a great deal. Yeah it's okay,
Speaker 1: just okay. What's not right above the subway? Well, I
Speaker 1: bet you don't even notice it after that's my neighbor. Angus.
Speaker 1: A deal that's just okay is not okay? Get a
Speaker 1: great deal with America's best network. Come into an AT
Speaker 1: and T store and learn how to buy one smartphone
Speaker 1: and get second one on US based on GWS one
Speaker 1: score September twenty eighteen. Star Sports Tours is the only
Speaker 1: official fan travel partner of the Dallas Cowboys, offering exclusive
Speaker 1: game weekend travel packages with sideline access and photo ops
Speaker 1: with current players, alumni, and cheerleaders. That's not all, though,
Speaker 1: You'll get to talk x's and os with Senior Director
Speaker 1: of Player Personnel Will McClay and of course, with yours truly, me,
Speaker 1: Brian broad Us. You can trust the official fan travel
Speaker 1: partner of the Dallas Cowboys and with us, you'll travel
Speaker 1: like a pro. Visit Cowboys travel dot com to book
Speaker 1: your travel package. Today has been helping Cowboys fans see
Speaker 1: better since nineteen seventy two, said they don't miss a
Speaker 1: moment on the field. Get glasses with slurs, best vision,
Speaker 1: clarity and protection with the Ultimate Lens Package three innovative
Speaker 1: technologies in one lens for a limited time. You can
Speaker 1: double your lenses for when you purchase the l Ultimate
Speaker 1: Lens Package and get a second pair of frames. Find
Speaker 1: up participating I Care professional and details by visiting essel
Speaker 1: or USA dot com. That's or USA dot com terms
Speaker 1: and conditions. Applying a man's stepson doesn't just protect him
Speaker 1: from life's elements, It projects an unstoppable and legendary spirit,
Speaker 1: just like the men wearing silver and Navy on the
Speaker 1: field every Sunday Sends eighteen sixty five. Stetson Hats are
Speaker 1: American made with pride right here in Texas. They are
Speaker 1: still the official crown of all self prospecting Cowboys, and
Speaker 1: Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team.
Speaker 1: Find steps and hats in the Pro Shop or at
Speaker 1: Stetson dot com. Today is the Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: Draft Show. Swboys are on the clod. We're back here
Speaker 1: in the SWBC Mortgage Studios, Ken Witskin, always presented by
Speaker 1: Miller Lite, Brian broad As, Dain Burglar, David Hellman, and
Speaker 1: our guest today, a very special guest, Will McClay coming
Speaker 1: in there and really give us a lot of knowledge
Speaker 1: and insight of what's going on, not only with again
Speaker 1: the philosophy. You know, we're talking about the picks, but
Speaker 1: how you get to the picks. I think this is
Speaker 1: always fascinating stuff. Okay, uh well, I think this draft
Speaker 1: for you and because you made moves, it was really
Speaker 1: fun to watch you keep backing up, backing up because
Speaker 1: you you know, you're thinking, Okay, how can I get
Speaker 1: more picks? We were we were we were thinking as
Speaker 1: we were watching, it's like, Okay, he's trying to set
Speaker 1: himself up to where he doesn't maybe have to fight
Speaker 1: for guys. We were thinking, oh, maybe these picks are
Speaker 1: going to come in the seventh round or so. But
Speaker 1: you manage you pulled, you know, you pulled six round
Speaker 1: picks and stuff like that and really helped your team.
Speaker 1: When you looked at you said the draft was very
Speaker 1: good in the middle though, what the going into going
Speaker 1: into it though, when you did make the selections, you know,
Speaker 1: with with Mike Jackson and then with Joe Jackson and
Speaker 1: then with Donovan Wilson, kind of walk us through how
Speaker 1: you came to those particular players. Again, you know, it's
Speaker 1: you're helping you you're helping your your your defensive line,
Speaker 1: but you're also kind of helping you know, your secondary
Speaker 1: with the safety in the corner as well. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that, you know, as we went down there was
Speaker 1: a number of players on the defensive side. You know,
Speaker 1: we do this analytics deal and you talk about the
Speaker 1: strength of the draft and this draft based on how
Speaker 1: we did it from I think we go from two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven to the current draft looking at information
Speaker 1: and say where's the strength. Well, defensive ends, defensive tackles
Speaker 1: was higher than some other positions. So we felt like, okay,
Speaker 1: you addressed a couple of things early. Now as we
Speaker 1: go down, where's our board? Where do we need help?
Speaker 1: So when we picked Mike Jackson, it's you know, we
Speaker 1: have contracts coming up. You can never have enough corners. O,
Speaker 1: there's a profile that you're looking for and Mike Jackson
Speaker 1: fit that. And Mike was one of the guys that
Speaker 1: we had the coaches go look at because of the parameters.
Speaker 1: Now we studied the tape, we gave him a grade.
Speaker 1: We like them from the scouting side based on what
Speaker 1: the coaches are looking for, what we're looking to putting
Speaker 1: this system. Now, Chris Rashard, go out and spend time
Speaker 1: with him, ride go out and spend time with them
Speaker 1: so that we'll find out if you know, the stuff
Speaker 1: was there that we wanted. So we picked Mike a
Speaker 1: big long corner inside outside last two years playing at
Speaker 1: Miami starting and then there are times on the tape
Speaker 1: where you watched him eliminate a guy, you know, because
Speaker 1: of those physical traits. So now you start looking and
Speaker 1: going okay, and we understand, you know how Byron Jones
Speaker 1: had his greatest year with this Chris Rashard coaching him,
Speaker 1: and he liked those traits and he knows how to
Speaker 1: coach those traits and get the max, you know, get
Speaker 1: the max out of that. So that was that, and
Speaker 1: then you know, we all know we've we've piece mailed,
Speaker 1: piecemeil this thing together for several years on the defensive
Speaker 1: line and not made a lot of investment from a
Speaker 1: draft pick standpoint in it. And so if there's depth
Speaker 1: there and there's quality players that play the way we like,
Speaker 1: why not take that opportunity to get them. So when
Speaker 1: we got to Joe Jackson, Joe is your classic guy
Speaker 1: that we have had great success with because they play
Speaker 1: like Rod wants to play, and they have those physical traits. Um,
Speaker 1: so he was there. And then you go to the
Speaker 1: safety we were looking for, and people are talking about
Speaker 1: safety for the Cowboys. Number one thing is uh, I
Speaker 1: think what started that is Earl Earl Thomas wanting to
Speaker 1: be here when there was the value might talk about that.
Speaker 1: Yeahs out there, you know, and we all didn't. You know, Hey,
Speaker 1: it's it's the NFL, it's twenty four to seven, and
Speaker 1: whatever's news. Somebody's gonna put it on somewhere. Thank you
Speaker 1: for it, you know, and we you know, we derive
Speaker 1: content and conversation from that. So then, Okay, this guy
Speaker 1: didn't play great according to Pro Football focused, we realize
Speaker 1: the strengths and weaknesses of our player. I think that
Speaker 1: we have a great deal of of high regard for
Speaker 1: where we think Xavier Woods can go and all of
Speaker 1: those traits and all those things. We won eleven twelve. However,
Speaker 1: many games we won last year with Jeff Heath playing
Speaker 1: for us. Sure, we want to improve that, but hey,
Speaker 1: we feel like we can be okay there. That's why
Speaker 1: we address the defensive line. If you look at if
Speaker 1: the line plays good, then the other pieces around it
Speaker 1: are going to play well also. So when it come
Speaker 1: to Dunavan, when it came to Dunovan Wilson, he has
Speaker 1: box safety traits we have, you know, at the right value.
Speaker 1: Let's give this kid an opportunity to come in and
Speaker 1: see what he can contribute because we like the physical
Speaker 1: things that he does. Now you know, now it's he's
Speaker 1: gonna come and have to fight in battle. But we
Speaker 1: took care of that position and addressed it. In free agency.
Speaker 1: We saw some things from a guy George Iloka that
Speaker 1: gives us some of that presence to battle with the
Speaker 1: guys that we have. We drafted Cavon Fraser. Cavon was
Speaker 1: hurt a little bit last year. Wasn't the same guy
Speaker 1: battled through. They're still promised there with Jeff Heath has
Speaker 1: performed well and he does his things well too, So
Speaker 1: let's add somebody else to that mix. Sure, Hey, survival
Speaker 1: of the fittest. I keep saying, competition brings out the
Speaker 1: best to everybody, Darwinism as you said the radio, right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, and it's survival of the fittest and if
Speaker 1: guys come in and compete and make this thing strong,
Speaker 1: and that's what we feel like Donovan can do too.
Speaker 1: I want to be careful not to be too specific
Speaker 1: here because I don't want to get you into a
Speaker 1: blog post somewhere on the internet, but mentioning that, you know,
Speaker 1: I think this is probably as deep as the Cowboys
Speaker 1: roster has been in the six years I've been I'm
Speaker 1: covering the team. Y'all are thrilled with your draft class,
Speaker 1: if it's possible, it sounds like you might be more
Speaker 1: thrilled with your undrafted class, like seven guys that y'all
Speaker 1: had grades on or something like that. Yea, with all
Speaker 1: that depth, with all that competition, Is it possible maybe
Speaker 1: you're more aggressive trying to use pieces of your current
Speaker 1: roster to upgrade, whether it's trading player for player, player
Speaker 1: for pick. Is that y'all haven't really done that in
Speaker 1: past years. Is it's something you're more interested given how
Speaker 1: strong your roster is right now. I mean, you don't
Speaker 1: want to give anything away. We want we feel stronger
Speaker 1: about our depth, and so you want to stay strong
Speaker 1: about you know, with your depth. If you move something,
Speaker 1: you better be getting something for it. And I think
Speaker 1: that all the possibilities are there because we feel like
Speaker 1: we have depth than we are strong. When you're you know,
Speaker 1: you've got a few more holes, it's a little harder
Speaker 1: to you know, kind of put some things out there.
Speaker 1: But we love the players that we have here, that
Speaker 1: we've drafted before, that we signed before, and then you
Speaker 1: add these guys in now we get to get into
Speaker 1: a competitive situation if somebody needs something. We have resources
Speaker 1: and we have things that we might be able to
Speaker 1: look at improving position A, position B. But we're always
Speaker 1: looking at that. This is kind of more of an
Speaker 1: overarching thing. But you know, I know, as an evaluator
Speaker 1: and evaluate these players, I know one of the most
Speaker 1: important thing for me is self evaluation and looking back
Speaker 1: at me and what did I get right, what do
Speaker 1: I get wrong? And understanding, you know, take a temperature
Speaker 1: of the NFL and understanding how the game evolves and
Speaker 1: what fits now compared to in the past. So I'm
Speaker 1: just kind of interested with you. You know, you've been
Speaker 1: personnel with the Cowboys were by a decade. Now. What
Speaker 1: do you think is the biggest difference between Will McClay
Speaker 1: two two thousand and nine and Will McClay today. Is
Speaker 1: there any big difference for you that you know, you've
Speaker 1: you know, learned along the way, you've evolved as an evaluator.
Speaker 1: What do you think is the biggest difference from your perspective? UM,
Speaker 1: I would say the biggest difference is, um being aware
Speaker 1: of how the game has played and what other people
Speaker 1: do when you when you're just evaluating talent, when you're evaluating, Okay,
Speaker 1: this guy can do this, this guy can do that. UM.
Speaker 1: I think I've gotten better as an evaluator to look
Speaker 1: at you know, there's cause and causation. Why is this
Speaker 1: guy good at this? Or what players are similar you know,
Speaker 1: and and and how they fit. I think I've gotten
Speaker 1: better at that, just as opposed to you know, great, no,
Speaker 1: this guy's big, fast, he should be done. Well, what's
Speaker 1: he missing? You know, what are his strengths, what are
Speaker 1: his weaknesses and how do they fit? Uh? And and
Speaker 1: and then I've gotten better Uh understand ending the impact
Speaker 1: of character over physical ability. Um, you know you got
Speaker 1: to have the physical ability to do that. But when
Speaker 1: I say character, it's the football character. Again, everybody's a
Speaker 1: little bit off here or there or whatever. I mean,
Speaker 1: all of us, But it's how do they fit into
Speaker 1: what you're you know, what you're projecting to putting them
Speaker 1: into culture and culture and yeah, it's it's you know,
Speaker 1: we do stuff with personality tests from the guys coming in,
Speaker 1: but we're also aware of the personalities that we're putting
Speaker 1: them with, right, you know when we take those things
Speaker 1: into consideration, and at the end of the day, we
Speaker 1: want guys to make plays to win football games. But now,
Speaker 1: how is it all going to drive Because you're putting
Speaker 1: a team together. It's not a golf match or a
Speaker 1: tennis deal, which one on one, it's how does it
Speaker 1: interact with the whole team? Well, you know, David brought
Speaker 1: up the fact that you know about the the undrafted
Speaker 1: free agencies signed. But again I'll focus just a little
Speaker 1: bit on the On the end of the draft with
Speaker 1: with Webber the pick from a house state, there's some
Speaker 1: people saying, well, wait a minute, why are they drafting
Speaker 1: two running backs, and we talked about poll earlier what
Speaker 1: he could potentially bring to the organization. But the Webber
Speaker 1: pick was add another one of those where you look
Speaker 1: at your board and you're like going, Okay, I'm here
Speaker 1: in the end of this draft, and give me a
Speaker 1: guy that's got some trades, give me a guy that
Speaker 1: I've got a high grade on get you know. I
Speaker 1: mean again, was that like we've talked about with McGovern,
Speaker 1: the blinking light that hey, yeah, let's add another guy here.
Speaker 1: It's it's more about I mean, yeah, you got one
Speaker 1: of the best running backs in the National Football League.
Speaker 1: You added a unique piece with Pollard. But this kid
Speaker 1: probably was just too good to pass up at that time,
Speaker 1: wasn't it. Yeah, he was too good to pass up.
Speaker 1: And one of the goals we had in the draft
Speaker 1: was improving the running back room if we could, you know,
Speaker 1: and there's you know, in the NFL now, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of kids that play in contribute that to get
Speaker 1: drafted in the fourth, fifth, sixth round free agent the
Speaker 1: running back position, you always have that veteran out there
Speaker 1: that can come in and can fill a role. And
Speaker 1: so when we look at the running back room, you
Speaker 1: look at the ability to play on first and second down,
Speaker 1: the ability to play on third down, and the ability
Speaker 1: to play on fourth down. So there is a player
Speaker 1: there that has a similar running style, and whether that
Speaker 1: Zeke does, he kind of learned some of the things
Speaker 1: under him. You watch tape and there's certain moves and
Speaker 1: certain things where you go, boy, that's a lot like Zeke,
Speaker 1: And so you know, adding him added depth to that
Speaker 1: position group and youthful depth to that position group because
Speaker 1: the running back you know, life shelf for the most part,
Speaker 1: unless you're rare like Zeke, it normally lasts for two
Speaker 1: to three years, and you're always trying to find that guy.
Speaker 1: It's the guy who can perform on special teams or
Speaker 1: what his role is. So the more options that we
Speaker 1: have there, the better we can construct this roster to
Speaker 1: fit all those things you need to do. When you
Speaker 1: got a forty six man roster, you're fifty three, all
Speaker 1: that stuff. Don't be diplomatic. We know you love all
Speaker 1: these guys because you drafted him. Who's your pet cat
Speaker 1: in this class? My pet cat is all of them. Now.
Speaker 1: I mean there are guys that like when when I
Speaker 1: went to the Senior Bowl, Um and we were watching guys. Uh,
Speaker 1: Tony Pollard stood out because when you watch you know,
Speaker 1: when I watched him, I was like, boy, there's something
Speaker 1: different about this dude. And you know, there was a
Speaker 1: play in the Senior Bowl game where in the game
Speaker 1: now watching him a practice different, No, there was a
Speaker 1: play where he's running between the tackles and linebacker decletes
Speaker 1: him and you know, he hits him from the side
Speaker 1: and he sends him about five yards. That bowl. Well,
Speaker 1: two plays later he runs the ball, same play and
Speaker 1: that linebackers there and he runs right through him, right
Speaker 1: and you know, we started talking about going. You know,
Speaker 1: this kid's fearless. You know, how do you run back
Speaker 1: kicks and do some of the things in lineup? It's
Speaker 1: a lot. I just liked the explosiveness in his play
Speaker 1: and then there's just a natural temperament that you see
Speaker 1: because I mean, he got whacked and then he came
Speaker 1: back and gave it to that same guy. And thing,
Speaker 1: you know, he never complained about his role at Memphis.
Speaker 1: They have three running backs and all those things. So
Speaker 1: there's something about the character that kid that showed up
Speaker 1: on tape and then we brought him in here and
Speaker 1: it reinforced that what I saw on tape, I was
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead. Da. I'm fascinating by that. We talked
Speaker 1: about it during the draft. Is you know, the layman,
Speaker 1: the average fan that turns on the draft on Thursday
Speaker 1: and maybe they're not paying close attention. You know, there's
Speaker 1: there's seven hundred guys that they got a list of,
Speaker 1: like you know, there's twenty safeties that they want you
Speaker 1: to draft. But in reality, you'll have a few dozen
Speaker 1: names that you really like. And I mean you're at
Speaker 1: the mercy of what these other teams want to do.
Speaker 1: But I'm fascinated by the you know, how do you
Speaker 1: get to that point where you know, these are kind
Speaker 1: of the names we've gotta like, these are the guys
Speaker 1: we love. And how how soon before the draft you
Speaker 1: kind of have that idea in mind. I mean, we
Speaker 1: go through the process for three weeks with meetings to
Speaker 1: set the board, and we talk about guys and then
Speaker 1: we put together our final board and if they're on
Speaker 1: the board, ninety nine percent of them we'd love them.
Speaker 1: Because they're on the board, there's something about them that
Speaker 1: they can contribute. Now you have your you still but
Speaker 1: you see Tony Pollard at the Senior Bowl and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this guy, right, I mean, and yeah, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: through the whole process of Okay, here's everybody's opinion. They
Speaker 1: know more than I do. This is just what I see.
Speaker 1: But you go through there's certain guys that you like,
Speaker 1: things about them that you think can add a value
Speaker 1: to your team. That so they're a little bit above.
Speaker 1: And every scout has a pet cat. All of our
Speaker 1: area guys, we tell them they're the GM of their area.
Speaker 1: They're going to go on the room and you know,
Speaker 1: they might have a second or a third round grade
Speaker 1: on a guy as an individual scout. Now, everybody else
Speaker 1: goes around, opinions might be different, but that scout's gonna
Speaker 1: go that's my pet cat, that's my guy, and you
Speaker 1: listen to all that um. But but yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: as we come down and you go down the draft, Okay,
Speaker 1: who's available? Who do we really like? What positions? That's
Speaker 1: all a part of the conversation and speaking to that
Speaker 1: of having guys on that board, how do you guys
Speaker 1: do It's amazing the undrafted free agents for years. I
Speaker 1: give Chris Hall a lot of credit for when I
Speaker 1: was working with you guys over on that side. Chris
Speaker 1: always did a great job of maintaining the integrity of
Speaker 1: the board. He never allowed scouts to drop guys and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Keep the board the way it is.
Speaker 1: But you guys, it's still the same way where you
Speaker 1: go after guys first, on those undrafted guys, I mean
Speaker 1: the recruiting and all that with those tags that are
Speaker 1: still draftable tags, right, yes, yeah, I mean you know
Speaker 1: the first place you start. Yeah, that's the first place
Speaker 1: we start. We put a draftable grade on a guy,
Speaker 1: and for each grade there's a definition and expectation of
Speaker 1: that round, and so we go through the process. Okay,
Speaker 1: we feel like this guy's a fifth round player for us.
Speaker 1: He's a you know, a backup who could develop into
Speaker 1: a potential role player, potential starter, contribute on teams. Okay,
Speaker 1: these are the guys that are that. So we have
Speaker 1: a vision of that role and they're up there. So
Speaker 1: the draft goes. It's our board. Maybe guys didn't see
Speaker 1: them that way, but those are our other blinking lights
Speaker 1: when you start the free agent process. And again when
Speaker 1: you talk about the depth of this draft, we had
Speaker 1: maybe a few more names on the board this year
Speaker 1: because the depth of the draft, you felt like there
Speaker 1: were three to four to five players a position that
Speaker 1: could potentially fill that role from an expectation projection standpoint.
Speaker 1: Now they get here, we'll see where they are. But
Speaker 1: there are guys that had the physical traits and all
Speaker 1: those things to belong on that board. Yeah. Well, Dame
Speaker 1: was talking about when we first started the process. He said, hey,
Speaker 1: you got to watch all these Toledo wide receivers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then one of the first ones he watch this
Speaker 1: John Bay Johnson play Yeah, and he goes, they got
Speaker 1: a lot of good ones, but watch this kid play
Speaker 1: speed speeds exactly. He was talking about that, And this
Speaker 1: was very early in the process. And you did, you
Speaker 1: go through and then you continually add guys. I don't
Speaker 1: know how you do it. I mean, it's amazing to
Speaker 1: me that with the roster depth that you do have,
Speaker 1: that you're able to add as many quality but I
Speaker 1: mean high at the kid. I talked to some teams
Speaker 1: around the way. How did y'all get high? A Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I doesn't make sense to him. I talked
Speaker 1: to I talked to probably five teams that said there
Speaker 1: were I think there were. They said, there were twelve
Speaker 1: teams maybe more that were battling for him, and here,
Speaker 1: you guys, you end up with him with the deepest
Speaker 1: though lining the league. Yeah, exactly, Well how does that?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's part of the you know, the kid
Speaker 1: and having the conversation. It's recruiting him, you know, it's
Speaker 1: recruiting him. Hey, you're not gonna get drafted. That's a
Speaker 1: hard thing to say to. My guys were told me
Speaker 1: he should have been drafted. Yeah. Every one of my
Speaker 1: guys were saying, wha wait, wait, that guy went undrafted.
Speaker 1: And I started four years at Clemson, you went two
Speaker 1: national championships and you're not drafted. And again that's where
Speaker 1: everybody's boards a little bit different. But then we have
Speaker 1: you know, we we recruited him. You know, he got
Speaker 1: on the phone with Mark Colombo. We addressed our process
Speaker 1: and getting free agents, and he was a guy that
Speaker 1: was there that we're like, look, we got to add
Speaker 1: that depth. And it just kind of it happened that way.
Speaker 1: And it's from the work of the college scouts that
Speaker 1: established the relationship. When they go in the school, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's the contact that they have to communicate
Speaker 1: with the player to tell them about our situation. It's
Speaker 1: our coaches being on the phone, and it's a guy
Speaker 1: wanting to be a cowboy. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you signed a bully too in that Brandon Night. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that got Indiana as a bully. Oh yes, I mean
Speaker 1: I watched him play and he's playing Michigan those people,
Speaker 1: and he's bullying those guys. And again those the guys
Speaker 1: that are all getting drafted, you know, the win of
Speaker 1: Ches and the Garys and those guys, and that guy's
Speaker 1: a bully. Yeah, there was a big that was a
Speaker 1: big part of the deal. It's like, okay, we send
Speaker 1: our scouts out to you to get a second look.
Speaker 1: He didn't go to the combine, right, you show up
Speaker 1: the kids pissed off that he didn't go to the combine,
Speaker 1: and that nature of who he is on the field
Speaker 1: that showed up in his natural personality, and we're like,
Speaker 1: here's a guy that can compete as a guard and
Speaker 1: a tackle, right, and there's not there's not enough offensive
Speaker 1: linemen to go around to thirty two teams, uh and
Speaker 1: and and and play good football if you lose one.
Speaker 1: So we feel fortunate that you know, our processes. We've
Speaker 1: invested in them, and then there's guys that want to
Speaker 1: come here and be a part of it because of
Speaker 1: the way our offensive line has thought of and so
Speaker 1: many guys want to be a part of that and
Speaker 1: compete to be a part of it. Well, the second
Speaker 1: half of preseason games are gonna be fun to watch
Speaker 1: because what they've done is they're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: evaluate their young quarterbacks. They'll be able to evaluate their
Speaker 1: young running backs because you have legitimate offensive lineman that
Speaker 1: can freaking play and block people, and now you get
Speaker 1: a full evaluate to your team. That's the right way
Speaker 1: to go. Yeah, it's always been a big part to
Speaker 1: me because Brian, like you, you know, we go to
Speaker 1: those preseason games. I call them on the radio. Well
Speaker 1: I'm hoping, you know, I'm gonna see players out there,
Speaker 1: but I will see the quarterback get killed. I want
Speaker 1: to be able to evaluate the game. Yeah, you go
Speaker 1: to that third and that fourth preseason game. How can
Speaker 1: I evaluate a position that's very valuable to us, like
Speaker 1: the quarterback position. Right, he's on his back half the
Speaker 1: time running a running back or whatever. And then you
Speaker 1: know it's just you gotta have depth in the offensive
Speaker 1: and defensive line. You look at the Washington Redskins last
Speaker 1: year and I applaud them even though they're the hated enemy,
Speaker 1: and the great Bill Callahan for bringing guys in on
Speaker 1: Tuesday and at least being able to play a good
Speaker 1: product out there and play a game. We don't want
Speaker 1: to be in that situation. And then also, you know,
Speaker 1: we talk about draft capital and everything else, and you
Speaker 1: brought it up if you're a strong team, Uh, people
Speaker 1: are gonna need things. And then that's also another way
Speaker 1: that you can continue to strengthen your team. Well, thanks,
Speaker 1: you're going to get bullies. It's hard glumbos. The line
Speaker 1: that it's not I don't want to put words in
Speaker 1: your mouth or anybody's mouth. Is it too simplistic, Like
Speaker 1: you get on the phone with this kid and say, hey,
Speaker 1: come be in our room for you know, during training camp.
Speaker 1: Even if you don't get a roster spot, if you
Speaker 1: do good work with the Cowboys line, that's going to
Speaker 1: carry weight around the league. I mean is that? I mean?
Speaker 1: I think that the players perceived that our job and
Speaker 1: recruiting was going, Look, here's the opportunity you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to compete. Yeah, and you want a kid that you're
Speaker 1: gonna say, hey, we got so, you know so, so
Speaker 1: and so and so. Uh, But it's about competition. Do
Speaker 1: you want to come and have the opportunity to be
Speaker 1: part of the best. And the guys that say yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, and they you know, Mitch Hyatt and
Speaker 1: and and and other guys had other opportunities to go
Speaker 1: other places. They wanted to come here and compete. That's
Speaker 1: the difference between me and top level football players. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I want to go where it's the easiest to get
Speaker 1: on a team, and they're like, no, screw that, I
Speaker 1: want to go against the best. How early do those
Speaker 1: conversations start? Like in the draft at fifth, sixth round
Speaker 1: and we just seventh, probably started about the fifth round.
Speaker 1: But what we do is, you know, we go through
Speaker 1: and again our college scouts. Once we set the board
Speaker 1: and every after every position group, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, we meet and we sequenced the PFA's Okay,
Speaker 1: we start to formulate our plan there. And then what
Speaker 1: we did was a week before is we got the
Speaker 1: scouts together at their cross check position. They're like, let's
Speaker 1: watch the six seventh round guys, the PFA's and let's
Speaker 1: sequence them the way that we like them, with the
Speaker 1: coach input and the scout input. So there was a
Speaker 1: clearer plan as to who we liked and didn't like
Speaker 1: or what level to kind of and you know, if
Speaker 1: that guy fell, we're on top of them. So we
Speaker 1: started recruiting them prior to the draft. Just let them know, hey,
Speaker 1: you know we're yet you know, da da da da dah,
Speaker 1: just to kind of get a feel for him and
Speaker 1: let them hear voice and associate the Cowboys. You know,
Speaker 1: my guess is my guests, just my guests, and maybe
Speaker 1: you'll confirm it. I think you added if you could
Speaker 1: draft abill grade, you added fifteen guys probably off your board,
Speaker 1: off your draft board if you had to guess if
Speaker 1: you can include your draft and guys would draft will grade.
Speaker 1: So think about that, guys, that doesn't happen very often
Speaker 1: and either that was already play, either they're gonna be
Speaker 1: really right or where we're like. But no, if you
Speaker 1: I have never heard a team add fifteen players off
Speaker 1: their draft board that do it to a roster, think
Speaker 1: I mean that is that that is some work. I'm
Speaker 1: always excited for camp, but extra shows this year, all right,
Speaker 1: with the last few minutes we have here, hopefully keep
Speaker 1: a little extra two minutes. Maybe I want to get
Speaker 1: into we always we hate grade and drafts. I hate,
Speaker 1: I hate. I don't like it. I know Dane hates
Speaker 1: it when he's asked to do stuff. You know, tell
Speaker 1: me what's happening in three year Like I say, I
Speaker 1: had an experience in Philadelphi where Scout told me we
Speaker 1: had the worst draft in NFL history and for the
Speaker 1: eight picks made the Pro Bowl four years later. So
Speaker 1: I don't I'm not going to grade drafts. I want
Speaker 1: to get your thoughts though about the twenty and sixteen draft,
Speaker 1: because we're doing this thing on Dallas Cowboys dot com
Speaker 1: about the great drafts and the history of this franchise,
Speaker 1: and it goes back to the draft with the Ezekiel
Speaker 1: Elliot draft, the Jalen Smith draft, who I was dead
Speaker 1: ash wrong about though Molie Collins, Anthony Brown, Charles Tapper,
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott, Cabon Frazier, and Darius Jackson that that right
Speaker 1: there in itself as a hall and then I kind
Speaker 1: of want to get into it just a little bit
Speaker 1: about the process. But you said you had the early
Speaker 1: pick with Zeke And was it all along? Was the
Speaker 1: thought about there trying to help Tony Romo or was
Speaker 1: it a situation you're like, this is like a generational player,
Speaker 1: a once in a lifetime kind of guy. What was
Speaker 1: the thought about drafting Ezekiel Elliott that early in that draft. Well,
Speaker 1: as you know, we started this deal, talk about the
Speaker 1: draft and people saying you needed this and that, and
Speaker 1: it was as we put you know, went into the year,
Speaker 1: you're thinking, Okay, there's some good quarterbacks in this draft.
Speaker 1: At some point in time, you have to get a
Speaker 1: replacement for Tony. So you know, we looked at all
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks we had went and worked all those guys out,
Speaker 1: looking at the quarterback position, looking at the corners, looking
Speaker 1: at the running backs. You know, all those guys. Joey
Speaker 1: Bosa was in that draft, and you know, as picks came,
Speaker 1: we had our feelings about those guys. But as picks came,
Speaker 1: we boy, there's Dallas Cowboy football is running the football
Speaker 1: and you know, having an impact player there. We had
Speaker 1: just gone through the deal where people said, you know
Speaker 1: you kind of the the devaluing of the running back
Speaker 1: position because DeMarco had performed well. We decided to let
Speaker 1: him go with the money got outrageous. So there was
Speaker 1: Zeke there and that was the pick number four. Checked
Speaker 1: all the boxes. We were good there, and you know,
Speaker 1: we got a great player and a generational player. We
Speaker 1: think from that um and then as you go down
Speaker 1: the draft again, there was that sometimes you'd rather be
Speaker 1: lucky than good. Uh, you know, there was that opportunity
Speaker 1: to uh, you know, we tried to get you know,
Speaker 1: trade for Paxton, and you know, then there was the
Speaker 1: Connor Cook talking Dad da da. And then you get
Speaker 1: into the fourth round there's a guy that we all
Speaker 1: loved that came from a system that wasn't NFL friendly,
Speaker 1: so to speak. When you're drafting a quarterback, it's just
Speaker 1: like the Daniel Jones thing. Oh well, he's been in
Speaker 1: the Cutcliff system, he's id the mic, he's call plays
Speaker 1: in the huddle, checked all the boxes. Well, we're very
Speaker 1: fortunate to get a guy in the fourth round that's
Speaker 1: our quarterback today and he's got more wins and the
Speaker 1: guys that were picked higher than him. Yeah, is there.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not trying to throw shade like that's unbelievable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: better to be lucky, than good sometime. But is there
Speaker 1: something to learn from that or you just chalk it
Speaker 1: up to the practicability of the draft. It's the draft, guys,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, we're so many
Speaker 1: of us are, especially that aren't in our side of
Speaker 1: it that get all the information. You're watching clips on
Speaker 1: YouTube or you're doing stuff and you don't get all
Speaker 1: the information on who the guy is. Now we're gonna
Speaker 1: have our When we pick a player, we're trying to
Speaker 1: get the highest return on the lowest investment. So there
Speaker 1: are things that you go through that checklist and maybe
Speaker 1: all of them aren't there. So there's the value of
Speaker 1: the player that you place on there. Then you get
Speaker 1: him in your building and he turns out to be
Speaker 1: more than what you expected him to be because now
Speaker 1: you got to really dig under the hood. So the
Speaker 1: lesson from that is, hey, you know, that's what we're
Speaker 1: getting better at now is understanding the character and who
Speaker 1: the guy is. But you don't know until you get
Speaker 1: him in the building. Do you have time to just
Speaker 1: sort of let that take your breath away. Well, I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of crazy when you think about it,
Speaker 1: and you know, y'all tried to trade for Lynch. You
Speaker 1: wanted Connor Cook, and Oakland took him out from under you,
Speaker 1: and then you wind up with Dak Prescott. I mean,
Speaker 1: like I said, it can kind of blow your mind
Speaker 1: if you stop and linger on it. Yeah, but it
Speaker 1: also makes us realize that we're not as good as
Speaker 1: we think we are in this opinionated business. You got
Speaker 1: to get him in your building and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: and you can discount of guy's heart and determination and
Speaker 1: all that other stuff. I think you learn those things,
Speaker 1: but you don't really know it until you get him
Speaker 1: in your building. He might have been a great leader
Speaker 1: in Mississippi State where everything was perfect. So but you
Speaker 1: get him under your building and you go, that's truly
Speaker 1: who the guy is. Yeah, it's Jalen Smith that way.
Speaker 1: Did we did we on our side or my side?
Speaker 1: Did we? Did I misevaluate what Jalen Smith's heart was,
Speaker 1: his his passion? I think I think we all did.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I don't know if you did
Speaker 1: well drafted him thirty fourth, well you know what's in there.
Speaker 1: But there's also been those players that you know, it
Speaker 1: was the kid, the great running back from South Carolina
Speaker 1: that San Francisco took early, you know, and there was
Speaker 1: these teams that do this and yeah they did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but because for whatever reason, be it physically or whatever,
Speaker 1: that they don't make it. Well, we were sure that,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a possibility of the kid coming back.
Speaker 1: And we didn't know if he was going to be
Speaker 1: that player that we graded high, you know, from his
Speaker 1: college tape. But there was something there and we roll
Speaker 1: the dice and we got a great return at that
Speaker 1: you would have had to take if he was healthy,
Speaker 1: you'd have had to taken him when you took Zeke. Absolutely, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's the top eight. I don't think I don't think
Speaker 1: Will will mind me sharing this story. It's it stands
Speaker 1: out to me big time. Um, I guess it was
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. This is the longest you've gone being nice
Speaker 1: to me. I appreciate that. Um, it's twenty seventeen. You know.
Speaker 1: We training camps over Jalen. He's out there. He's got
Speaker 1: like ten pounds of tape on his leg. Everybody's analyzing
Speaker 1: the way he runs. He kind of he doesn't look
Speaker 1: totally fluid yet. And he made his preseason debut against
Speaker 1: the Colts and I'm I'm down on the sideline anyway,
Speaker 1: I take pictures, I talk to people. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Will's down there, which is not to like you're not
Speaker 1: down there every Yeah, that's not normal. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, and he's like fixated on Jalen. I'm like
Speaker 1: pretty big night, and he's like, hold onto your butt
Speaker 1: like this, yeah, this is this is the guy we
Speaker 1: thought we were getting. Like he was like the just wait,
Speaker 1: just wait for John Smith and low and behold yeah,
Speaker 1: and to be as great as he was in college.
Speaker 1: There's the physical traits that he already had, but you know,
Speaker 1: there was something about him there and then that's what
Speaker 1: helped him get through that whole injury deal and to
Speaker 1: fight back. And he wanted to be the best and
Speaker 1: wants to be one of the best. And you know,
Speaker 1: you know there's a you see our guys walk around
Speaker 1: with the shirt driven. He was driven to come back
Speaker 1: from that injury. That's what he's doing now. You know
Speaker 1: when you look back at that though, and then grabbing
Speaker 1: like Anthony Brown when you did, I mean, that's incredible
Speaker 1: that the way I mean the sixth I know that
Speaker 1: was one of the guys when we were doing the show,
Speaker 1: we were all like, you know, best available. Dane kept
Speaker 1: going best availble best. Well, Anthony Brown, somebody's got to
Speaker 1: take this. Anthy Brown. He runs too well. You watch
Speaker 1: the produe tape, He's just this and this, and then
Speaker 1: you know, you have to be proud about those picks
Speaker 1: that you know that you make in the in the
Speaker 1: sixth round, seventh round, and all sudden, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: you look just like that turn out. Well, it's like
Speaker 1: we talked about, you know, this draft, well you look
Speaker 1: at it when you go down on we have these players,
Speaker 1: if we have them evaluated the right way. We had
Speaker 1: Anthony evaluated higher than they're in the people picked who
Speaker 1: they picked. And then there he was right there and
Speaker 1: I got you know, hey, he runs really well. There
Speaker 1: are some there were some issues, are some things that
Speaker 1: he didn't do well in college, but we felt like
Speaker 1: they were correctable and not terminal. And when you can
Speaker 1: run like that and the type of kid that he is,
Speaker 1: you figured that's the right opportunity. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: panned out well, and he's been through a couple of
Speaker 1: different coaches and he's continued to grow. And I think
Speaker 1: Christopher Shard has helped him too. Do you know where
Speaker 1: he's going to continue to get better? Go ahead day.
Speaker 1: I've never thought to ask you this. I mean you
Speaker 1: you help find these guys. You're a guiding voice in
Speaker 1: that discussion. What's your role, if any, in these financial
Speaker 1: decisions that come now that these guys are coming up
Speaker 1: on their next contracts. My role is to say what
Speaker 1: their value is, what other players in the league are like.
Speaker 1: I don't get into the numbers. Hey, thank goodness, because
Speaker 1: I couldn't do that because the way contracts are now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm chief for the most part, so it would be
Speaker 1: hard for me to kind of wrap wrap my arms
Speaker 1: around the total package. I think we do a great
Speaker 1: job with that in the front office, led by Stephen,
Speaker 1: to figure that out and figure out how to do contracts. Um.
Speaker 1: But I just want to say, this is where this
Speaker 1: guy is valued, this is how he is and you
Speaker 1: know the things that I can do from a personnel
Speaker 1: side and a team building side to say how does
Speaker 1: it affect this, this and this and throw that two
Speaker 1: cents in? Well, Well, well, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: spending time with us. It was awesome to get such
Speaker 1: a perspective. Actually, a bonus for us with you being
Speaker 1: here today. Dane Brugo, this is your last last Draft show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I refuse to believe that. Yeah, Dane's moving one family
Speaker 1: moving on to Ohio. I've been with us the last
Speaker 1: five years and doing this stuff, so honor not only
Speaker 1: have a great personnel man, a guy that gets growing up,
Speaker 1: here's a personnel man with us here. We appreciate you
Speaker 1: being such a part of the Draft show. Thank Ohio.
Speaker 1: Are you sure you want to move to Ohio? Have
Speaker 1: you seen the weather living? He's an Ohio kids family state. Yeah,
Speaker 1: go out hang out with my buddy John Dorsey up there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're getting you. We're getting you back for the next draft.
Speaker 1: Don't even worry about it. Yeah, hopefully hopefully It's not goodbye,
Speaker 1: just kind of see you soon. Okay, I like that,
Speaker 1: But thank you for all you das. Cowboys Nation has
Speaker 1: been great to me and it's been an awesome being
Speaker 1: part of this, learning a lot from you guys, and
Speaker 1: it's been a lot of fun. So it's uh something
Speaker 1: that leave with. It's a little bitter sweet, but excited
Speaker 1: for the next show. We'll find you down the road somewhere.
Speaker 1: Absolutely Senior Bowl combine. We'll bring it back for the
Speaker 1: j I guess still got to cook crawfish for everybody here.
Speaker 1: I do I wanted. I got my Houston guy over
Speaker 1: here and lead some crawfish way. Well okay, well that's
Speaker 1: all the time we have for the Draft Show. Again.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Will McClay, vice President Player Personnel with the
Speaker 1: Cowboys for spending a lot of his time with as
Speaker 1: a busy man, but he wants to be a part
Speaker 1: of this and we really do appreciate that. So that's
Speaker 1: it for the Draft Show for two thousand and nineteen.
Speaker 1: Thanks everybody out there and made this possible, and we
Speaker 1: will see you next January as we start the journey
Speaker 1: or the bye week. Don't forget about the bye week exactly. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll see you. We'll see you here real soon though.
Speaker 1: Thanks for everybody out there. Take care. This has been
Speaker 1: a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys Football Club.