First, the shuffling in the scouting department in 2012 was because a guy left to go to the Packers and they had to replace that guy. And all they did was shift region responsibilities between scouts. There wasn't this big overhaul of the scouting department in 2012. There was only one new person added in 2012.
2013 was the first real big change when Stephen promoted McClay to work under him and gave him way more responsibility in building the draft boards, etc.
Garrett was not the driving force in those moves.
I have never once even used the term "development". I've never said Garrett should not get credit for developing players. But the ultimate test of player development is what happens on the field and this is where you and I disagree. Winning 13 games but crapping out in the playoffs isn't some massive achievement in my book. One playoff win in 7 years isn't a sign to me that he and his staff are doing a fantastic job developing the players. I need more on field success before I can sit there and say he's done a great job at developing a championship caliber roster.
The key piece to building a roster is actually acquiring the talent first that can later be developed. Some seem to want to try to give him credit for that as well, and I think that's bogus.
You can't separate the role of player development from the role of player selection, so trying to parse the two is pointless. What we know is that he's the primary agent in the organization for player development, and that everybody else who has a role there reports to Jason. And we know he's got some role in player selection, because we see him in the draft room, we get stories about him reviewing tape on Elliott down to the last day before the draft, we see the role his subordinate coaches play on draft day, because we've been told that Garrett came in with strong feelings about how players and coaches need to work together to build a team, and because it only makes sense that an NFL head coach has input in player selection. Nobody disputes Bill Parcel's role in the draft. Wade came out and publicly abdicated his role in player selection, saying his job is to coach the players Jerry selects. With Jason, Jerry, Stephen, and Jason have said all along the selection process is a collaborative effort. There's no good reason to disbelieve them unless it's just what you want to believe.
As a side note, "shuffling" is a fair term for 2012. Not sure what issue you had with me bringing it up, but the fact remains they've reorganized the scouting department quite a bit during Garrett's tenure. He doesn't have the authority to do that singlehandedly, but then nobody ever suggested he did. What I suggested was that it was done collaboratively, that it correlated to the team winning more and having better players, and that he deserves credit for whatever his role was in the shuffling. Only if you have an agenda would you believe all this stuff happens without a lot of input from the team's head coach.
http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/2012/05/25/veteran-scout-addition-among-staff-changes
