Dallas Cowboys extend coveted chief scout Will McClay with 5-year deal
Before Tuesday’s availability at the Senior Bowl with Dallas Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay, he asked that there not be any questions about his contract status. With his contract set to expire in May, he made it clear that he would not comment on the status of the negotiations.
Less than 24 hours later, it became apparent why.
On Wednesday, McClay signed an extension to remain the chief scout of the franchise and the highest-ranking member of the club not in the Jones family. Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones tells the Star-Telegram that the deal ties McClay with the team for five years through the 2030 NFL Draft. ESPN’s Todd Archer was the first to report a signed agreement.
“I wanted to be here with the crew and what we’ve built,” McClay said in the suite level of Hancock-Whitney Stadium in between practices. “I have always stated that when I got here, my main goal was to be a part of something that gave us an opportunity to win another Super Bowl. I’ve got to continue to do that and got to do my job better. Getting the opportunity to do that with these people is extremely important to me.”
While there was a bit of uncertainty with the deadline approaching to extend his services with the team, McClay said that everyone knew he wasn’t going anywhere as the two sides had talked on the deal for a while.
“We’ve talked about it and for an extended amount of time and wanted to do it the right way,” he said. “The biggest thing for us is to get the head coach going and go through that and wanted to know who that was and buy in from there.”
Since taking over the process of the draft for the franchise in 2014, McClay has been responsible for the selection of 15 Pro Bowlers across all three days of the draft. From first-round picks such as Zack Martin, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons to day-three selections such as Dak Prescott, DaRon Bland and Jake Ferguson, McClay’s track record is proven as he heads into his 12th draft cycle leading the scouting department.
Despite opportunities to interview in the past for general manager openings around the league, McClay has chosen to stay in Dallas to work alongside the Jones family.
“Because of the people,” he said on why he stays. “At the end of the day, it’s the people that you work for, the people that you work with and the people that we bring into this. It’s a great responsibility that me and my crew have. We take that with great urgency and it gets more urgent every year and we got to be better at it and I want to be a part of it.”
For the front office, keeping McClay was a priority following the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer as head coach last week.
“We think Will’s one of the best in the business in terms of running, helping us work through our personnel,” Stephen Jones said. “I think we’re consistently, year in and year out, staffed with the best personnel in the league and certainly Will has a huge part of that. To get him back and have him signed up long-term makes me smile.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 1:16 PM.
