FRISCO, Texas – Every draft is fun to re-visit, but 2021 may be especially interesting for the Cowboys.
The team made a whopping 11 picks last weekend, the most in more than a decade. The vast majority of those were geared toward reshaping a struggling defense. Just how successful those efforts were will play out over the next few years.
The process behind that is a fascinating conversation, and Cowboys executive vice president of player personnel Will McClay was able to shed some light on it on Friday morning. McClay sat down to discuss the Cowboys' conversations on draft night, as well as some of their plans for this large draft class.
Here are some of the highlights:
- There's an intriguing amount of versatility that comes with Micah Parsons as the 12th overall pick in the draft. McClay touched on Parsons' history as a defensive end and how his ability to pressure the quarterback played into his draft evaluation.
- Over the course of making 11 different picks, the Cowboys were presented with a multitude of different options. Team owner/general manager Jerry Jones acknowledged last week that the front office considered as many as six different players over the course of Day 2 and Day 3 of the draft, and wound up selecting four of them in the middle rounds. McClay expounded on those conversations and detailed how the Cowboys wound up at the decisions they made.
- As one of the primary figures in the Cowboys' draft process, McClay undoubtedly likes all 11 of the selections the team made this year. That said, he did open up about the traits and abilities that drew him specifically toward two of the Cowboys' Day 3 draft picks, Stanford receiver Simi Fehoko and Kentucky defensive tackle Quinton Bohanna.
Click the link below to watch the full interview:
