Will McClay?

[Pants]

Dallas has been in salary cap hell for a while and they are just starting to come out from under it...McClay has been hamstrung there...maybe in 2019 where there is potential $$$ we can see what he can do...

 

[Captain-Crash]

Mcclay is picking winners, but we have no talent.. lmao

 

[jterrell]

McClay is viewed as some sort of a personnel genius in Dallas. To be fair the drafts have been much better of late. Can never forget the Jerry led days of special teams drafts. McClay also heads up the pro scouting so he is largely responsible for the FA pick ups. Last 3 years of FA's:

2017- Paea, Carroll, Moore, Bell, Blanton, Hillman
2016 - Thorton, Mayowa, Morris, Sanchez, Looney
2015 - Hardy, Gachkar, McClain, McFadden, Barden, Brown

That is some group. To me Looney is the best pick up. Morris and Madden tied for second. Third is........Mayowa??? I toss McClain and Hardy for obvious reasons. My point is that Dallas has been terrible with FA signings. Terrible. Several of these guys didn't make the teams. Free Agency is a crapshoot at best but compare the Eagles pickups over the last 2 years. Not good.

Fans tend to overrate their own. Can the same be said for Will McClay? Compared to Jerry a bag of rocks would be better but I am starting to question the "Genius" of Will McClay.

Am I wrong?

TL,DR version.... yes, you are wrong.

McClay headed up the pro personnel dept BEFORE he was handed the draft.
And he was excellent at it with yearly "finds".
That was largely what drove the team to hand him the Draft.
Now with the draft as his focus the team doesn't use free agency for players beyond cheap stop gaps.
They get their talent out of the draft and retain their own talent with their cap dollars.

This is the ideal to build a winning organization that looks more like Tom Landry and less like some 1 and done regimes.

 

[Scotman]

And it really handicaps us and that's we've gone from America's team to Next Years team.

Maybe next year we'll get Earl Thomas, Frederick will be healthy, D Linemen won't get suspended, we'll have a TE, better coaching, Ect...

I hate the negative stuff like this. I hate it MUCH more that I agree with it. :-(

 

[Corso]

Ok I was just kidding. Honestly he's probably above average (like a 7.5 outta 10)

First it's pretty easy to pick decent linemen in the first round. You can google it and you'll find articles that show that statistically most first round linemen end up as starters at a higher rate than other positions.

After the first rd is where I think we have issues. Guys like tapper haven't contributed, Switzer was traded and then traded again, Chaz shouldn't be in the league

In 2015 we took Byron (when we should have take Landon Collins). Randy Gregory who looks to be a contributor this year but offered nothing prior. Damien Wilson -well I guess he's functional. Chaz and Ryan Russell

I gotta hit the gym but I'll be back to talk about the 16 and 17 draft

Once again I believe he's decent, but there's been a lot of misses in the draft and free agency as well.

Oh and yes, I know that most drafts aren't going to net starters across the board and no team has a perfect draft.

You hit the gym at close to 1 in the morning? You animal...

 

[aria]

Well he ran romos prime years through the dirt.... here we are looking to hope to make the playoffs this year

Romo contributed plenty to running his own career in the dirt and JG wasn’t there for all of them either.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Decent? How is that group decent? I despise the Eagles. Last year - Blount, Long, Foles, Smith. 2016... Jenkins, Curry, Wiesnewski. All had big roles in that Super Bowl. How exactly does Joe Looney compare to that? McClay deserves scrutiny.

Everybody deserves scrutiny but that doesn't mean he's done a bad job IMO. FA is about money, plain and simple. We have made it a point to continue to be frugal in our spending and who can really speak against that? The 2000s taught us just exactly how miserable Football can be when you are in cap hell. Would I like to go out and get Aaron Donald? Absolutely, I would. I would love to see us get a guy like that but that's just not how this team operates and that's why you see the FAs we sign.

All I've heard about on the board, of late, is how much of a value Thomas is in comparison to Hitchens and what he would have cost us. Now, Thomas has looked pretty good, I have to say and he is considerably cheaper but we will have to see right. Having said this, this appears to be an FA that the team did a good job on, thus far. You can only do so much when you are shopping at the Dollar Store guys.

JMO

 

[tm1119]

Everybody deserves scrutiny but that doesn't mean he's done a bad job IMO. FA is about money, plain and simple. We have made it a point to continue to be frugal in our spending and who can really speak against that? The 2000s taught us just exactly how miserable Football can be when you are in cap hell. Would I like to go out and get Aaron Donald? Absolutely, I would. I would love to see us get a guy like that but that's just not how this team operates and that's why you see the FAs we sign.

All I've heard about on the board, of late, is how much of a value Thomas is in comparison to Hitchens and what he would have cost us. Now, Thomas has looked pretty good, I have to say and he is considerably cheaper but we will have to see right. Having said this, this appears to be an FA that the team did a good job on, thus far. You can only do so much when you are shopping at the Dollar Store guys.

JMO

I definitely think $ has a part in it, but I don't think you can look past the fact that regardless of price the team targeted specific players that were complete dumpster fires. There were players that were evaluated and thought to be part time starters/key contributors that ended up being complete misses, it happens but when they are our only signings as well it gets magnified. Couple free agency with some of the evaluations of our own players and I definitely think there are legitimate concerns about the pro personnel side of the Cowboys.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I definitely think $ has a part in it, but I don't think you can look past the fact that regardless of price the team targeted specific players that were complete dumpster fires. There were players that were evaluated and thought to be part time starters/key contributors that ended up being complete misses, it happens but when they are our only signings as well it gets magnified. Couple free agency with some of the evaluations of our own players and I definitely think there are legitimate concerns about the pro personnel side of the Cowboys.

I think that's more on the Coaches, myself. A personnel dept will put together a list of potential options. The staff will then take that list and prioritize which options they want. Offers go out and players either accept or decline, based on variables that are not always know, but are usually centric to money.

That's just my opinion.

 

[bsbellomy]

My post was referring the history of the eagles. What does the upcoming 2018 season have to do with how they were fortunate one time in entire history of the franchise? You know I was not making any statements about Dallas? Right?

We've only won 1 championship since FA became a thing and that was with exactly 1 FA on the team.

 

[bsbellomy]

You also have to consider, the organization always had little money towards the salary cap and couldn't get the big name free agents. McClay done wonders with what he had to work with.

I'm not sure why anyone thinks this but I've heard this a bunch. This is 100% false. The Cowboys could have created cap space for FA easily in the past 3 years.

 

[viman96]

We've only won 1 championship since FA became a thing and that was with exactly 1 FA on the team.

How is that related to what I wrote?

 

[PAPPYDOG]

McClay is viewed as some sort of a personnel genius in Dallas. To be fair the drafts have been much better of late. Can never forget the Jerry led days of special teams drafts. McClay also heads up the pro scouting so he is largely responsible for the FA pick ups. Last 3 years of FA's:

2017- Paea, Carroll, Moore, Bell, Blanton, Hillman
2016 - Thorton, Mayowa, Morris, Sanchez, Looney
2015 - Hardy, Gachkar, McClain, McFadden, Barden, Brown

That is some group. To me Looney is the best pick up. Morris and Madden tied for second. Third is........Mayowa??? I toss McClain and Hardy for obvious reasons. My point is that Dallas has been terrible with FA signings. Terrible. Several of these guys didn't make the teams. Free Agency is a crapshoot at best but compare the Eagles pickups over the last 2 years. Not good.

Fans tend to overrate their own. Can the same be said for Will McClay? Compared to Jerry a bag of rocks would be better but I am starting to question the "Genius" of Will McClay.

Am I wrong?

No ...Not Impressed with Will at this point still has alot of players on the fence and as long as the Jones family owns the Cowboys not Will or Batman or Superman will have the final say when it pertains to the Family jewel.....

 

[GenoT]

The question is, can Will McClay overcome Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett?

 

[bsbellomy]

How is that related to what I wrote?

Because you are trying compare the two teams successes in FA based on a history where FA did not exist. I'm surprised you needed me to explain that.

 

[Cowboys22]

I don't consider anyone in Dallas a genius. Yes, the drafts have been better but not without mistakes. Personally, I think McClay's hands are tied in free agency so I don't hold anything against him there. The person that will get the genius label from me is the one who convinces Jerry to get rid of Garrett and Linehan.

 

[Bullflop]

I don't consider anyone in Dallas a genius. Yes, the drafts have been better but not without mistakes. Personally, I think McClay's hands are tied in free agency so I don't hold anything against him there. The person that will get the genius label from me is the one who convinces Jerry to get rid of Garrett and Linehan.

I would imagine such convincing would most likely have to come from Stephen, who also has been infatuated with JG and perhaps Linehan also. It might take a catastrophic falling from grace of this team to convince either or both of them to change their thinking. Not a pleasant thought, I'll admit.

 

[kevm3]

Will McClay is excellent at the draft. In regards to FA, hard to say because this cheap strategy seems to be a Stephen Jones thing. If McClay is also responsible for FA, then he is garbage at FA.

 

[tm1119]

I think that's more on the Coaches, myself. A personnel dept will put together a list of potential options. The staff will then take that list and prioritize which options they want. Offers go out and players either accept or decline, based on variables that are not always know, but are usually centric to money.

That's just my opinion.

You could be right, fact is none of us actually know. But like I said earlier in this thread, it's a little convenient that McClay is only responsible for the good things happen with the Cowboys.

 

[atlantacowboy]

McClay turned down a GM job to stay in his current role in Dallas. He's basically being paid like a GM. I refuse to use the word "genius" to describe anyone in football, but he's a well respected talent evaluator. He's certainly better at his job than Jerry and Jason are at their jobs.