2020 NFL Draft

[cowboycolors]

Biadasz has a long ways to go before he gets to Frederick's level. Possibly he was playing hurt last year because he did not play as well as the year before. I am hoping this is the case. I see the potential though. He does have good size and length. We cant afford to go back to the days of Phil Costa who literally got Romo beat to death

phil costa what a utter terrible football player thank god those days are long behind the Cowboys

 

[cowboycolors]

Finally a draft just take the best players we will find a way for them to play in our system

instead of BS picks of Taco and Hill

 

[Schmoopy1000]

that was one guy I really didnt know, but figured we needed a DB & with this makes me even happier.
McClay wil need a few bad drafts before I start doubting him. he has earned my confidence.

 

[ROMOTOOWENS]

I wondered if you saw that.

may take a year but I expect him to be a solid starter.

I’m good with it. I like the size. I like the athleticism. Al Harris will make him better. With CB being one of our biggest needs in the draft, I studied them probably more than any position. Not their tape, but just what the so called experts were saying. He had a lot of mixed reviews. When McClay says what he did though, they obviously like something.

 

[ArlingtonCowboys100]

I’m good with it. I like the size. I like the athleticism. Al Harris will make him better. With CB being one of our biggest needs in the draft, I studied them probably more than any position. Not their tape, but just what the so called experts were saying. He had a lot of mixed reviews. When McClay says what he did though, they obviously like something.

There is some serious potential with Robinson. He is pretty damn fast with good size. He is not afraid to tackle which is a plus.

 

[Schmoopy1000]

The lead-up to the 2020 NFL Draft demanded unfavorable circumstances. It took place during uncertain times. And the draft itself was unprecedented in terms of its execution. And yet the Dallas Cowboys managed to come away with what is considered by many to be the most impressive haul of draft selections in recent memory.

Jerry Jones appeared on television throughout the draft, personally calling up young players from his yacht to tell them their dreams were coming true. It was Mike McCarthy's first draft with the Cowboys to begin to construct a roster for his offensive and defensive schemes. Stephen Jones was heavily involved in drafting decisions. But when the draft was completed it was President of Player Personnel Will McClay who was given the credit.

"He'd be the MVP at the end of the day," Stephen Jones said. "He really embraced this [process]."

McClay's role as an expert player evaluator required walking so many difficult tight ropes. Jones has always been heavily involved in player acquisitions and needs to be kept abreast of evolving thought processes. McClay also needed to make sure that he was on the same page with the first new Cowboys' coaching regime in a decade. Travel restrictions limited his entire staff's ability to see players in person as the draft neared. The hurdles were obvious.

True to his typical demeanor, McClay deflected the notion that he deserved the credit for a successful draft and instead heaped praise on the people working under him. "The MVP of the draft was the scouts, to me," McClay said. "We rely on the scouts. That's how we build the [draft] board."


Scouts are sometimes imagined to be older, stuck-in-their-ways football purists, but a combination of technology, game tape, intuition, and nontraditional communication was crucial to being prepared for such an unorthodox draft. The DallasCowboys.com digital team chronicled the pre-draft process of the Cowboys scouts going back to February in the video series "Building a Team."

Luck is always involved when talented players fall to a team in the draft, but McClay said that when other teams passed on players that the Cowboys were high on they chose to believe it was because those teams hadn't gone to the lengths in scouting that the Dallas staff had. He admitted that, at times during the draft, he'd think to himself, "'Maybe we didn't get this right,' but then you go back and you trust it. Everybody [else] doesn't have all the information and the extra road talk and all these other things."

Fifth-round pick Bradlee Anae was a perfect example of this. A fairly dominant defensive end at Utah, Anae likely fell in the draft because of a disappointing 40-yard-dash time at the NFL Combine. McClay said his staff had seen too much tape of Anae to be steered against him. "There's timed speed and there's play speed," he said. "We felt like he played faster than his 40 time."

McClay's focus on his staff might seem like typical deflection of praise, but during a time when people in every industry have either been directly affected by COVID-19 or simply fatigued by uncertainty, his point is prescient: The scouting staff managed to come together and be flexible enough to complete a very difficult task.

"That's what I was most proud of," McClay said. "With everything our country is going through and all the other things going on, our guys' ability to focus in and do the job was an incredible thing."


Will McClay Deflects "MVP" Praise To Scouts

 

[jarntt]

A reminder that you never know about draft picks