Will McClay, Cowboys reach new agreement to keep personnel guru in Dallas

While most of the attention of Cowboys Nation is centered around the playoff hunt, the not-so-under the radar concern isn’t just advancing, but whether or not Dallas will be able to keep their coaching tree intact. Both coordinators Kellen Moore and Dan Quinn seem highly sought after with the half-dozen openings that have sprung up around the NFL. Some of those coaching searches are going hand in hand with discovery periods for potential new GMs.

Wherever those teams find solutions for the latter chase, they won’t be sniffing around Dallas. It’s long been a discussion there will never be a GM without the last name Jones as long as the family owns the team. However Will McClay is the personnel man for the last decade and he’s done a tremendous job building the roster that has helped make Moore and Quinn so attractive. On Thursday, he took his name off the market by inking a new deal to remain in Dallas as VP of Player Personnel.

McClay is integral to the Cowboys’ front office, working well with new head coach Mike McCarthy and former HC Jason Garrett. While Stephen Jones deals with negotiating contracts, it’s McClay in charge of the scouting departments, both pro and collegiate. He elevated to the big chair after the 2013 draft-day fiasco that saw the Cowboys ignore their board to trade back away from a needed three-tech, but salvage things with the selection of Travis Frederick.

McClay has been at the helm for many key decisions over the years, and the draft hauls from 2020 and 2021 – bringing the club cornerstone pieces such as CeeDee Lamb, Trevon Diggs and Micah Parsons, along with later-round finds, has cemented his status as one of the league’s best personnel men.

McClay is so integral, when the defensive staff was ravaged with COVID, there he was helping out with a headset, calling back to his days as a former head coach of the Dallas Desperados. The former Arena League defensive back was their head coach from 2004 through 2008 before moving to the Cowboys in 2009.

He’s gone from Pro Scouting Coordinator to Director of Football Research in 2011. In 2014 he was given the title of Assistant Director of Player Personnel and finally got the big chair in 2017. Teams have come calling relentlessly but McClay has made it clear in the past how much he enjoys having his family in the Dallas area.

While the Cowboys might be fishing for new coordinators on either or both sides of the ball soon after their season concludes, they know that whomever takes over will continue to reap the benefits of one of the league’s better evaluation wings of the front office.

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