“At the end of the day, he is still watching football,” McClay said in a virtual interview with DallasCowboys.com. “Access is the same. There aren’t that many people running around. It is more of the player’s clear process ”.
The game will be played on Saturday at 1:30 pm on the NFL Network.
It can be suggested that this year’s Senior Bowl is as important as ever, considering the main changes in the NFL mix. This week’s assessment is a chance to see a number of players at first hand, including some who did not even play last season due to Covid-19.
“It’s great to see the guys play and participate,” said McClay. “This year is so different with schools playing, not playing, guys choosing to go out, choosing – all those things.
McClay said the favorite part of the Senior Bowl experience is not just the guys taking the field and competing against each other, but how they absorb the whole process during the week.
“When you go to college for training – our scouts – you take pieces and then they kick you out,” said McClay of visits to schools on campus during the season. “Well, (at the Senior Bowl) we can see the whole process from the beginning to the end of the practice when they call them. These are things that we continue to evaluate in the player – his interactions. The way he interacts with his teammates and coaches. These are the things I like the most, being able to watch from the beginning to the end of training and then starting to formulate an opinion based on what was said about the player. Then we take it and have the personal interaction, we can put all this together to really paint a picture about the guy. “
For one reason or another, Senior Bowl players seem to make a good impression on Cowboys. Dated 2005, when they evaluated a slim but explosive pass-rusher called DeMarcus Ware, to Zack Martin, DeMarco Murray and until recently with Tony Pollard and Bradlee Anae, the Cowboys seem to call on Senior Bowl players.
Although McClay said it was more of a “coincidence”, he remembers one of his favorite players that the Cowboys have already selected and who participated in this game.
“The big one is Dak Prescott – he was on the other team when we were training him at the time,” said McClay of the 2016 Senior Bowl, when the Cowboys coaching staff was there to coach one of the teams. “When you are training, you have a more intimate feeling with the guys because you are training them every day and seeing how they absorb things and you spend more time with them. With Dak being on another team, the teams change staff and the coaches interview them and the teams. We need extra time. Just that interaction with Dak, watching him in training, but then that interaction with him started to tell us more about who he was and how he was different. added more information to what we had. We feel that when the time comes, we will have the opportunity to choose this guy – he is the right guy. “
And regardless of position, finding the “right” guy for the team is goal number one. McClay said that when the Cowboys enter Year 2 with Mike McCarthy, they understand better what they are looking for, but that doesn’t change much with the general philosophy.
“It is important to know what they are looking for, but at the end of the day, we are looking for good football players,” said McClay. “We understand the profile of the different positions and what we are trying to do. It is an ongoing thing. We have been with Jason (Garrett) and this team for a long time and there was a better feeling for that. Everyone For example, when we talked to Coach McCarthy and his team, the better these things go together. Our goal is to tell you what the guy can do. What are your areas of concern or weakness. And we give that information to the coaches and Jerry and Stephen as we go. And this is how we choose our player. “