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- Mar 18, 2019
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Having a front office fully aligned with its head coach when it comes to personnel decisions can be a critical factor in allowing a football team to succeed.After the first draft with Mike McCarthy in place as head coach of the Cowboys, that relationship appears to be off to a strong start in Dallas.
Will McClay, the Cowboys’ vice president of player personnel, was dubbed the “MVP” of the draft process by Jerry and Stephen Jones. While speaking with reporters on Tuesday, McClay said that a meeting with McCarthy soon after the coach’s arrival in Dallas got him excited about the way they could approach personnel
“When he joined the organization and we started talking about players, one of the first things out of his mouth was ‘Players over system,’” McClay said, via Jori Epstein of USA Today. “Well, that rung a bell with me right away.”
Instead of a rigid construction looking for specific parts to fit into roles, McCarthy’s willingness to be adaptive to the abilities of players McClay could bring in allowed for a broader approach.
“They articulate what they’re looking for,” McClay said. “It was a less ‘I want this, I want that, I want that’ approach than ‘OK, what can this guy do? What’s the value for him?’ And if we get him, we’ll have a way to use him.”
Led by the selection of CeeDee Lamb in the first round, the Cowboys are quite pleased by the seven-man draft class they were able to compile over the weekend.
“Very, very excited to get what we feel like are good players that fit us.” McClay said.