Breer: What The Cowboys Learned from Picking Prescott

[Plankton]

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/04/20/aaron-hernandez-suicide-nfl-impact-notebook

In January, I did a story with Cowboys COO Stephen Jones on Dallas’ potentially franchise-altering rookie class. And in the course of our talk, he raised something interesting to me—the team was going to look hard at what he viewed as its biggest draft slip-up. That was waiting until the fourth round to scoop up Dak Prescott.

On Wednesday, I circled back with him to see what he and his scouting staff had identified as the “miss” on the 2016 NFL Rookie of the Year.

“The biggest thing for us, and we’re trying to see how we’ll cultivate it and do better with this, is how you differentiate when you say, ‘this guy’s got great football character, the ‘it’ factor, he’s a leader,’” Jones said from his office. “How do you quantify that in good vs. great, and great vs. rare. That’s probably what we missed the most with Dak.

“We underestimated how just rare his leadership skill and his football character were. That contributed to his maturity, in terms of being able to walk in the door and have success at our level so early.”

So there’s our offseason lesson of the week, with the draft a week away: Talk of intangibles may sound corny, but a guy’s makeup matters and even more with the quarterbacks than anyone else. Which is to say, when people say Deshaun Watson is off the charts in that area, you should listen; and when Davis Webb and Pat Mahomes are positioned as gym rats, pay attention.

 

[Floatyworm]

What Cowboys learned was.....It's better to be lucky than good.

 

[Risen Star]

I'm not reading all that. They made the pick. They have to live with it. I have no faith it won't happen again.

 

[Trouty]

I have no faith it won't happen again.

Double negative; you're saying you have faith it'll happen again

 

[CF74]

So now they might reach next time, got it... lol

 

[Tass]

So now they might reach next time, got it... lol

That's exactly what I thought when I read it! I was like "Oh, no...now we're in for guys who aren't as good but by golly, they LOVE football and are really nice."

 

[viman96]

What Cowboys learned was.....It's better to be lucky than good.

Dallas had plenty of plenty of info on Dak. They were the 1st team to pick him and that is all that matters.

 

[Hailmary]

When Jones labeled Mahomes and Davis as "gym rats", was that a compliment or a knock?

 

[xwalker]

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/04/20/aaron-hernandez-suicide-nfl-impact-notebook

In January, I did a story with Cowboys COO Stephen Jones on Dallas’ potentially franchise-altering rookie class. And in the course of our talk, he raised something interesting to me—the team was going to look hard at what he viewed as its biggest draft slip-up. That was waiting until the fourth round to scoop up Dak Prescott.

On Wednesday, I circled back with him to see what he and his scouting staff had identified as the “miss” on the 2016 NFL Rookie of the Year.

“The biggest thing for us, and we’re trying to see how we’ll cultivate it and do better with this, is how you differentiate when you say, ‘this guy’s got great football character, the ‘it’ factor, he’s a leader,’” Jones said from his office. “How do you quantify that in good vs. great, and great vs. rare. That’s probably what we missed the most with Dak.

“We underestimated how just rare his leadership skill and his football character were. That contributed to his maturity, in terms of being able to walk in the door and have success at our level so early.”

So there’s our offseason lesson of the week, with the draft a week away: Talk of intangibles may sound corny, but a guy’s makeup matters and even more with the quarterbacks than anyone else. Which is to say, when people say Deshaun Watson is off the charts in that area, you should listen; and when Davis Webb and Pat Mahomes are positioned as gym rats, pay attention.

Jones acknowledged the challenge. “Most quarterbacks have that,” he said. ”Most quarterbacks, you’re gonna hear, they’re the leader of the team, they’re the face of the program. When most of them have that, well, then what’s the difference between top five guys who all have that mark? Is one better than the other? How would you rank them in terms of that rare leadership skill, that rare football character?”

It’s not easily quantifiable, but as Jones explains it now with the benefit of hindsight, the Cowboys did see it in Prescott. Thing is, Jones thinks if they’d dug deeper into it, it’d have been even more obvious. And if they’d valued those traits more, Dallas probably would’ve taken Prescott earlier.

“I think he’s rare compared to the guys who went in front of him,” Jones continued. “I don’t want to single guys out, that’s not fair, but he had football character, he had leadership skills, he had work ethic that was rare compared to most of the guys in front of him, if not all the guys picked in front of him. We need to pay more attention than we have in the past.

“That may be a trait that’s a differentiator even though most quarterbacks have it that are at least good. Is there a difference between good, great and rare?”

It’s something the Cowboys plan to apply to their process in looking at all positions now, at least as a tiebreaker, and potentially more in certain cases. And it may be important too, given the amount of turnover that Dallas will undergo on defense.

The thought here is that if the team can ID traits that helped Prescott assimilate quickly and excel early in defensive guys next week, the holes on that side of the ball will get filled more seamlessly.

As for where Prescott is, Jones is cautiously optimistic that, while the team learned a lot about scouting quarterbacks through this process, they won’t need a new starter for a long time to come.

“It’s probably a little bit early to call him a franchise quarterback, he has one year under his belt and this year coming up is crucial and critical in terms of how he responds,” Jones said. “Obviously, there’ll be a lot of time for a lot of people to watch tape on him and us in terms of how they defend us next year. He’ll be doing that work, too.

“My bet is Dak understands that, and knows that he’s got a lot of work in front of him, and he’s not going to catch anyone by surprise this year. He’s going to have to have that work ethic, that football character come out in spades for him, and he’ll have to work harder than he’s ever worked. That’ll be up to him.”

If the Cowboys’ work on this over the past months is correct, there’s not much to worry about there.

"Talk of intangibles may sound corny, but a guy’s makeup matters and even more with the quarterbacks than anyone else."

It's hard to believe that teams, media and fans don't already know this about QBs, but they all seem to forget.

I've said many times that I don't like to even post opinions on QBs in the draft because I can't interview them. IMO, most QBs that get drafted have the physical ability to play QB in the NFL. It's the mental makeup that makes or breaks them.

The hard part is that it's not always the same mental makeup. Dak and Romo have significantly different personalities.

The common trait in great Olympic Athletes, especially the ones that are in developed skill competitions (gymnastics, figure skating, etc..) more than raw athleticism (track, etc..) is that they are great at taking coaching (constructive criticism). Many people just can't take constructive criticism. Work-ethic alone is not enough if a player (especially a QB) can't thrive on constructive criticism.

Constructive criticism is like feedback in a closed loop system. If you ignore the feedback below (temp sensor), then the output (room temp) will go haywire.

 

[tyke1doe]

Dallas had plenty of plenty of info on Dak. They were the 1st team to pick him and that is all that matters.

I agree. We picked him in the fourth. No one else picked him before we did.
Why are we obsessing whether we should have taken him earlier? If you can get a Mercedes-Benz for $60,000, why would you pay $100,000 for it?

 

[JoeKing]

When Jones labeled Mahomes and Davis as "gym rats", was that a compliment or a knock?

Early in his career Romo was a gym rat too... it's a good thing.

 

[DFWJC]

Well, I like that they aren't pounding their chest, but instead being honest.
I'm impressed

 

[DFWJC]

When Jones labeled Mahomes and Davis as "gym rats", was that a compliment or a knock?

Compliment, of course

 

[Direwolf63]

I agree. We picked him in the fourth. No one else picked him before we did.
Why are we obsessing whether we should have taken him earlier? If you can get a Mercedes-Benz for $60,000, why would you pay $100,000 for it?

Dak going in the 4th round was clearly a league wide error. He should have been a first round pick. The fact that the Cowboys took him does not does not eliminate the error.

If there is such a thing as a "positive error", Dak was it. But it was still an error. Dak was mislabeled on the Cowboys draft board. The fact that he was mislabeled by everyone else does not mitigate the error.

I think it is a good thing to try to understand why Dak was mislabeled. It's not good enough to just say "we got lucky". It must be looked into in order to draft better in the future.

 

[Hailmary]

Compliment, of course

I guess, but I can also interpret it as he looks the part, but not much going for him between the ears or shows much in terms of leadership qualities.

 

[SDCowboy]

I think the success of Dak may very well change what a lot of teams look for when drafting a QB. Especially if that QB is expected to start right away.

 

[dfense]

Take your pick

Even a blind squirrel......

Don't look a gift horse.....

 

[Dale]

Well, I like that they aren't pounding their chest, but instead being honest.
I'm impressed

I could really listen to Stephen Jones talk all day. A refreshing departure from the cinge-worth Jerry comments.

 

[Longboysfan]

What Cowboys learned was.....It's better to be lucky than good.

Then back when Jerry was drafting we had no luck at all.

 

[Longboysfan]

Take your pick

Even a blind squirrel......

Don't look a gift horse.....

How about trust in Will McClay.