Dallas Cowboys’ ‘MVP’ Will McClay bonded with Mike McCarthy’s over draft philosophy
Unlike Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, vice president Stephen Jones and coach Mike McCarthy, Will McClay, the team’s scouting director, wasn’t shown on television during last weekend’s NFL draft.
And while the elder Jones is getting credit for pulling off the Cowboys’ best draft class in years from his super yacht Bravo Eugenia, and McCarthy is being lauded for his influence over his first draft as coach, the man who pulled it all together was McClay, working in the proverbial shadows.
And like so many other NFL executives, he had his kids by his side — just without his own draft cam recording it all.
But his work was no secret to his bosses as Stephen Jones called McClay the most valuable player in the team’s draft process because of how easily he adapted to what the 2020 format was going to be after the league shut down team facilities and mandated that everything become virtual.
“He’d be the MVP at the end of the day,” Stephen Jones said. “He embraced this. Jerry and I did run into some general managers and people who were involved in the draft that were pushing back and wanting to delay and wouldn’t embrace this. Will and our scouting staff jumped in with both feet, and he never blinked.
“I think Will, with his leadership, with our scouting staff was off the charts. He does an amazing job with the chemistry with the coaching staff, with our medical staff, with our off the field staff and compiling all the data that Jerry and I and the coaching staff need to see to make great decisions.”
True of his selfless ways and style, McClay was appreciative of the compliments but he refused to take all the credit for the Cowboys success. He said he was just doing his job and laid it at all the feet of his scouting staff.
“It’s not me, it’s the entire group and it’s the way that we scout,” McClay said. “We are one of the few franchises, we scout throughout. We have continuous study. So when the shelter in place happened we were continuing on. And most credit to me, from me, goes to our scouts. Our area scouts, jumping in and just doing everything that it took to make sure that we had all the information.”
McClay believes the stay-at-home directives may have been a plus for the Cowboys scouts. They were able to hone in and be more detailed in their own analysis as well as get a greater understanding of what McCarthy and new coaches needed for their schemes.
“We all had the time to be together and go over this a million times without the distractions,” McClay said. “Sometimes when you go on the road [it’s] paralysis of over analysis, or whatever that statement is. I think we honed in on the things that mattered most to us, ... because I think we had the time and ability to do that.”
The Cowboys also relied on McClay and his scouts to do their job, and it appeared that the unit was leaned on more this year, in part, because of the offseason coaching change.. In recent drafts, the knock was that the Cowboys passed on players rated higher on the draft boards because they were considered poor scheme fits for the coaches during Jason Garrett’s tenure.
The selection of defensive end Taco Charlton in the first round in 2017 is a prime example. The coaches forced Charlton because he was a prototypical defensive end of their 4-3 scheme. Of course, Charlton was unceremoniously released less than three years later with just four sacks to his credit.
McCarthy told McClay that his priority was that the team go after good football players first and the coaches will be flexible within the scheme to use the talent.
And it played out in the team’s ability to consistently make value picks based on the best player available on their board through the draft.
“One of the first things out of his mouth was ‘players over system,’” McClay said. “Well, that rung a bell with me right away.”
“It was just a unique deal,” McClay continued in speaking about McCarthy and his staff. “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.” He said the coaching staff and the scouting department were very much in-step with how all of the players were rated. “So there was a unique synergy within that process, as well.”
