Jerry Jones Talent Analysis Process

[Stryker44]

Has he ever explained the process he uses in order to rate and scout players and picks? They say you lose ability with age, but as a GM, its clear that Jones continues to improve.

 

[yimyammer]

Its simple really, the less involved jeri is in the process, the greater the chances of success.

When jeri follows his urges, bad things ensue. Example of recently dodged urges: not drafting Manziel and taking Zach Martin.

Things are so deliberately obfuscated, it's impossible to know how decisions get made in many instances, but I suspect jeri still has to throw his weight around and is probably very influential in bringing guys like Hardy, Gregory, McClain and Jaylon Smith on board.

The Jaylon Smith gamble may pay off and if so, then kudos to the wild catter, he finally hit a "gusher"

 

[Jenky]

Has he ever explained the process he uses in order to rate and scout players and picks? They say you lose ability with age, but as a GM, its clear that Jones continues to improve.

It all starts with Johnnie Walker blue label. A drunken Jerry acquires more talent via the draft than the Commanders. Go figure.

 

[Stryker44]

It all starts with Johnnie Walker blue label. A drunken Jerry acquires more talent via the draft than the Commanders. Go figure.

I know, its frustrating. But when he's not drunk he must be doing some serious talent evaluations.

 

[Idgit]

We improved when Jason came in. One part because Wade was really hands off and just said he'd coach the players the team provided for him. The other part, I believe, is because Jason's dad was a long-time scout and Jason had spent a lot of time looking first hand at how a coaching staff and a scouting staff need to shake hands to find and develop players.

We false started early hiring Rob Ryan and his multiples defense that put a ton of pressure on the players to know what to do and manage exceptions. Especially on defense, where you pretty much know you're likely going to need to bring in players at some point and get them up to speed, it was a huge limitation. With the new CBA, we jettisoned that defense and brought in the 4-3 that's pretty elementary in terms of player responsibilities, and put in charge of it a coach who's famous for coaching technique instead of a complicated scheme. That's made it easier for us to be consistently mediocre defensively without really devoting resources to that side of the football. We're deeper than we were, because the player knowledge of the scheme doesn't need to be as complicated and it's just a process of getting the backups where they need to be with the little things.

Offensively, we hit on the OL, and that makes everything else look a lot better. We've done a great job not missing on our 1st round picks, and have found a couple gems in CFA over that time. A lot of it is just having a system in place over time, knowing what sorts of players you need for that system, and then letting the scouts find them. And then having somebody sit on the crazy wild-catting owner to keep him from making mistakes in the name of wheeling and dealing. The success we've been having finding and developing talent has bought some trust there, and we've done a pretty good job filling in the holes. Getting lucky by thoroughly scouting Dak (oddly, our coaches were involved there more than the college scouts, apparently) was the biggest boon that makes everything look different in Dallas this year, but the reality is that the process has been going well for several years now.

 

[drawandstrike]

After the complete and total collapse of the team in 2010 and Wade was shown the door, I was hoping that Jerry had at LAST learned his lesson.

The Lesson he didn't learn when he pushed out Jimmy Johnson at the end of the '93 Super Bowl season, convinced he knew what he was doing and 'anybody' could coach the team "Jerry built" to the Super Bowl.

I've often said while winning the Super Bowl in '95 was great, it was also one of the worst things to happen to Jerry Jones because it sadly convinced Jones that he knew what he was doing as a GM.

It is how we got the incredible stretch of bad drafting from 1995 to 2002. Jerry thought he was restocking the talent to build a lasting contender for the next decade. Instead by 1997 it was becoming clear the cap hell and the bad drafting had decimated the team. Instead of a contender what Jerry was presiding over was a cellar dweller.

It was not until 2003 that Jerry admitted he'd made a mistake and brought in Bill Parcells to right the ship.

But in just 3 seasons Jerry figured he didn't need Parcells any more and ditched him and installed Wade Phillips. After the 2007 and 2009 playoff seasons, Jerry once again figured he had a team ready to contend for the next several seasons.

And for the second time Jerry was forced to learn a brutal lesson. As GM he does not know what he is doing. Instead of a perennial contender he had a team that collapsed and needed a complete overhaul.

At that point, watching Jerry repeat the same mistake he made with Jimmy with Bill Parcells, I was very skeptical when he elevated Jason Garrett & Stephen Jones started taking a more active role as 'assistant GM'.

Let me tell you the first evidence I saw that Jerry had finally learned The Lesson, that he needed help to function as a GM in this league:

The fact that in Garrett's 1st year of being head coach & Stephen's 1st real year of having any real authority as 'Assistant GM' for the first time since Jerry Jones had bought the team we spent our 1st round draft pick on an offensive lineman, Tyron Smith.

In the 20+ years that Jerry had been running the franchise the Cowboys had NEVER taken an offensive line man with that first pick.

All during the Jimmy Johnson years Jimmy & Jerry argued over team philosophy. Jimmy believed you built the team around linemen to win the war in the trenches and Jerry believed you built the team around the stars at the skill positions. Once Jimmy was gone Jerry the GM's first act was to do the huge trade for Deion Sanders that put the team in cap hell for about 5 seasons. Jerry was convinced that trade is what got the Cowboys back to the Super Bowl in '95.

While Dallas spent #1 picks on DE's during Jerry's reign, only DeMarcus Ware, Greg Ellis and Anthony Spencer turned into long time productive Cowboys. Shante Carver & Ebenezer Ekuban were huge disappointments. And Ware and Ellis and Spencer were quickly converted into OLBers in the NFL. We've never really drafted in the first round big DT's or DE's big enough to stay DT's and DE's in the NFL and put them on the line. Instead the focus was on hybrids like Ware who were planned to be converted into OLB'ers from day one.

So that's 20+ years of drafting under Jerry's watch where we never really seriously drafted a big body in round #1 for either the offensive line OR the defensive line.

And then after the 2010 collapse, and Jason Garrett becomes head coach & Stephen steps into his expanded role, all of a sudden in the 2011 draft we're taking a Big Body for one of the lines and lo and behold it's a Left Tackle and there's no plans whatsoever to convert him into a TE or something. TYRON SMITH IS ACTUALLY GOING TO PLAY ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE.

Watching that 2011 draft gave me hope that at last Jerry was both listening to and TAKING good advice about personnel.

Watching the team subsequently take TWO more big bodies for the Offensive Line in the following 3 drafts cemented this view. The addition of Travis Frederick and Zack Martin shows there's a new drafting philosophy at work, and I don't believe it came from Jerry himself. The GM position is now being run as a brain trust.

It took 2 brutal lessons, but Jerry finally seems to have realized he needed to share the role.

This is why I'm confident in the next several drafts we'll at last see actual big bodies drafted for the Defensive Line in the first round. They won't be undersized college DE's slated to be converted into OLB'ers. They'll be actual 300 pound hogs expected to actually PLAY on the defensive line.

It's gonna be awesome.

 

[JD_KaPow]

It all starts with Johnnie Walker blue label. A drunken Jerry acquires more talent via the draft than the Commanders. Go figure.

Well, the 'Skins GM is a serious alcoholic, so maybe it's not that surprising...

 

[Yakuza Rich]

What the Jerry haters don’t want to admit is that Jerry has the highest rate of Pro Bowl players drafted of ANY General Manager in the league. It goes against their narrative that Jerry = Bad.


That being said, I’m a firm believer that the GM position is the most overrated position in the NFL. It’s not unimportant, but people place wayyy too much emphasis on its importance. So Jerry’s success rate with draft picks that turn into Pro Bowlers shows how overrated the GM position is when you can’t turn that into Super Bowls.


But, you can pretty much go thru ANY team in the league that has had a GM for length of time and you can see how their success and ‘how well they draft’ coincides with the head coach.


Trent Baalke thought he was boy-genius in San Francisco. He sure looked great when Harbaugh was the head coach. But in just 2 short years of Tomsula and Chip Kelly they are now 1-11 on the season and everybody talks about how they field a terrible team. That’s in just TWO SHORT YEARS.


Scott Pioli was boy-wonder in New England. He’s now vilified in Kansas City and it wasn’t until Andy Reid came along that they suddenly developed a deep roster and ‘draft well.’ Carl Peterson was a genius with Marty Schottenheimer, then a dummy with Gunther Cunningham and then a genius again with Dick Vermeil before being a dummy again with Herm Edwards.


AJ Smith though he was the guy who could do no wrong with Marty Schottenheimer and wanted so much of the credit he fired Marty after a 14-2 season. Then in 3 years he looked like a guy that couldn’t draft because Norv Turner was his head coach.


Buddy Nix was thought of a fixer-upper in San Diego when he had Schottenheimer as the head coach. Then years with stiffs like Dick Jauron and Chan Gailey proved otherwise until Doug Marrone came along and suddenly the Bills had ‘talent’ and now it’s a ‘talented team that doesn’t deliver’ with Rex Ryan. The same with the ‘talented but doesn’t deliver’ NY Jets under Rex Ryan.


And our very own Jerry who was rolling 6’s with Jimmy as the coach, then was a colossal idiot with Chan and Campo as coaches, then a ‘good sound talent guy’ with Parcells and then into a laughingstock with Wade and now a ‘talented roster’ GM with Garrett.


It’s really about the coaching staff and being able to develop talent. Understanding how to transform talent from a young player into a quality, productive veteran. The GM’s tend to play a role in hiring coaches and a GM that signs FA’s to ridiculous deals can really hurt a franchise, but other than that it’s about the coaching. Give me a developer of talent like Belichick or Carroll or Tomlin any day over the ‘great eye for talent’ scouts and GM’s.




YR

 

[xwalker]

Has he ever explained the process he uses in order to rate and scout players and picks? They say you lose ability with age, but as a GM, its clear that Jones continues to improve.

Why did you post this in the NFL Zone?

I don't know if you're joking, but he has employees that scout players. He is just the tie breaker and the one that pushes to take the risky pick over the safe pick.

 

[DandyDon52]

Jerry Jones Talent Analysis Process= a couple of drinks, and a magic 8 ball !
Thats how he came up with his manziel pick.
If it was up to jerry, most of the players we have would not be here.
He would not have taken Dak. not flashy enough.