Jason Garrett direct quote:
"The most important thing is we talk about what it means to be a Dallas Cowboy, the kind of guys we want on our football team. If you look at the guys we've selected, each of these six guys represents that. They're good football players. The top three guys are from big schools. They're prominent players at that school, they have production at a high level. And then as we've gotten a little further down in the draft we've been able to take some guys who we think can fit a particular role for us. At least to create some competition on our football team. Again, they have the right measurables, they're the Right Kind Of Guys, we think they're good football players."
So every time Terrence Williams is caught lying about a dui while crashing his bicycle, or when David Irving chooses pot over the Dallas Cowboys, when Greg Hardy is signed for a huge deal immediately after threatening to kill his girlfriend and no one else in the league would even touch him, or even when Randy Gregory gets suspended for the fourth time... just remember these were the right kind of guys to represent the storied history of the Dallas Cowboys.
For Garrett, a “RKG” doesn’t equate to the player being a Boy Scout. His definition is more about players having a strong work ethic and having a love for the game of football. About guys who lead from the front and care about their craft, continuously working to get better. A player that works well in a team environment and hates making mistakes that let his team mates down. Not someone who has never slipped up off the field.
If a guy works incredibly hard in practice and has demonstrated that football is the most important thing in the world to him, he’s going to get a long look from the Cowboys, even without being perfect off the field. Another guy might be squeaky clean in his private life, but if Dallas feels like football isn’t the most important thing to him, or that he skates by on talent without trying to get better... Garrett very well could choose the player with a ding on his record.
Obviously, Dallas would love for all the players to be like Tyron Smith or Fletcher Cox, but that just doesn’t happen. No team has 100% great guys on the team and all teams miss on some guys character.
Those guys you list in your post all came relatively cheap, either in draft capital or in actual dollars.
Terrence Williams was a third round choice but he wasn’t viewed as any kind of risk coming out of college. Dallas didn’t know he’d be a dumb ***.
There were some warning signs with Irving, for sure. However, Dallas didn’t use any draft picks on him. He was signed off of Kansas City’s practice squad and was very cheap. He is talented but once the Cowboys determined he didn’t really love the game, they cut ties with him. The key was how little risk was involved in adding Irving. They took a shot that didn’t work out. Do that with a high draft pick or with a big contract and that’s how a team gets into trouble. This cost the team very little.
Greg Hardy was clearly a bad character. Dallas took a chance there but it wasn’t a big financial risk because of how the Cowboys smartly structured the contract. Hardy only got paid for the games he played in and a lot of the money was tied up in incentives. Dallas did their due diligence with Hardy in checking out that he played and practiced hard. But Hardy is simply nuts, and Dallas chose to not bring him back. Any production wasn’t worth the locker room BS that he brought. It didn’t work out but it was a one year contract that had no salary cap ramifications.
Gregory himself was a fairly high pick but relatively speaking, a low second for high first talent was a bargain, which is why Dallas took the chance. Outside of his weed issue, he has what the team looks for in a young player: hard worker who loves to play and wants to get better. A good team mate who is liked in the locker room.
To this point, it hasn’t really worked out, and speaking for myself, I wish the team hadn’t used the 60th pick on him. Even if he was a top 10 talent at the 60th pick, I would have gone with more of a sure thing. But I don’t have to agree with every move they make and I understand why they did it.
The point is though that Gregory pretty much falls under the RKG for Garrett. It’s why the team continues to help him in his recovery and to stick by him through the suspensions. He’s a great team mate and loves to practice and play the game.
Anyway, whatever the Cowboys are doing personnel wise... it is working. They’ve been winning a lot of games and their roster is unquestionably one of the better rosters in the league. They might be the best drafting franchise in the NFL and their salary cap is in good shape, although because of the great drafts they now have a lot of contracts coming up.