MOBILE, Ala. – The mantra of the offseason for the Cowboys has been a mix on continuity and change. On Wednesday, they stuck to the continuity portion of the equation by signing vice president of player personnel Will McClay to a five-year extension.
"I wanted to be here with the crew and what we've built," McClay said. "And have always stated that when I got here, my main goal was to be a part of something that gave us an opportunity to win another Super Bowl, and I've got to continue to do that and got to do my job better."
"Getting the opportunity to do that with these people is extremely important to me."
McClay, 58, has been with the organization since 2002 and has been a key part of bringing in high-level talent like Micah Parsons, CeeDee Lamb, Trevon Diggs and plenty more to Dallas. Conversations between McClay and the front office have been ongoing for a while, but the timing had to be right.
"We've talked about it and for an extended amount of time and wanting to do it the right way," McClay said. "And the biggest thing for us is to get the head coach going and go through that and wanted to know who that was and buy in from there."
The buy in is there from McClay, and extending him is proof that Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones is bought in to what McClay does for the team too.
"We think Will's one of the best in the business in terms of helping us, Jerry and I, work through our personnel," Jones said. I think we've consistently year in and year out been staffed with the best personnel in the league and certainly Will has a huge part of that."
McClay wasn't shy about the fact that he wanted to stick around in Dallas, and he feels that way because of the people he gets to work alongside from the front office, to the coaching staff, to his teammates in the personnel department.
"At the end of the day, it's the people that you work for, the people that you work with and the people that we bring into this," McClay said. "It's a great responsibility that me and my crew have, we take that with great urgency and it gets more urgent every year and we got to be better at it and I want to be a part of it."
With the retention of McClay also comes continuity on McClay's staff as well, and he's proud of what his team has built up to this point and looks forward to using that sense of urgency as motivation going into the future.
"We built a system that we're very proud of," McClay said. "It was all of us getting into it and building it and doing that. And most of the people that we started that with are still here. We know and we understand and we believe in each other."
"We grew up together, and people have had opportunities to leave and they wanted to stay here for what we've built. And then we talk about family. Well, when you got family, you can be honest, you can be open. We can have knockdown, drag out fights, and then still know what matters most. And it's the relationships."
The goal going forward is simple, continue to have success in the draft like McClay has during his tenure with the Cowboys, and focus on preparing to play a game in February instead of just attending the Senior Bowl.
"Getting good football players and building a team that has an opportunity to fight for where we want to be," McClay said on the future. "We want to be playing in the next couple of weeks for the next few years to come."
The track record McClay has posted during his 20+ years in Dallas has been impressive, and Jones believes that brighter days are still ahead.
"I think the best is yet to come," Jones said. "It's like it's fine wine or a good wine. It gets better with time, and I think Will's going to be the same way. I think it's best to still in front of him."
