'It's Big!' Cowboys 2 NFL Draft Needs Revealed by Will McClay

'It's Big!' Dallas Cowboys 2 NFL Draft Needs Revealed by Will McClay: Linebacker & O-Line

FRISCO - Dallas Cowboys personnel boss Will McClay at different times during his DFW media visit at in Mobile at the Senior Bowl spoke generically about "America's Team's'' needs. Example?

"At the end of the day, when you're looking for players, you're looking for the biggest, strongest, fastest, most athletic guys and seeing how they fit into our scheme," McClay said, adding at one point that the Cowboys "need to get better at every position.''

The reality: The NFL Draft doesn't allow that. Nor does NFL free agency. 

So more specificity is helpful ... and McClay is also offering that, with what sounds like two pinpointed position groups.

"No. 1, watching the offensive linemen," he said. "Getting an opportunity to see them in different settings and seeing them do NFL stuff, you get to evaluate that ability …''

That makes sense, given the fact, among others, that Tyron Smith is 33 and out of contract. (Tyler Biadasz is also a free agent.)

Additionally, McClay said of needing to beef up at linebacker, "I think it's big.''

None of this means that Dallas should use the NFL Draft to strictly seek help at those two spots. "Best Available (Athlete)'' - "BAA,'' or as the actual scouts call it, "BPA'' (best player available) is a smarter way to go.

But the concession that Dallas has those two glaring needs, and maybe even an admission that the "small, fast linebacker'' ended up getting the Cowboys pushed around? 

That's helpful for Cowboys Nation in seeking the team's goals.

"This is the time you really get to reset it," McClay said of roster-building.

Fortunately for the Jones family, there is no "re-set'' in McClay's office at The Star. This offseason, after receiving requests from the Carolina Panthers and Washington Commanders to interview for their vacant general manager positions, McClay declined to even visit, remaining committed to Dallas.

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"You set a goal, and one of my goals is to be a part of winning a Super Bowl here with the Cowboys," he said. "We've built something great. We've got a great staff – the coaching staff and the organization. There's nothing like winning one at home, and that's truly the goal."

And two steps toward that goal, it seems: Adding talent to the offensive line and doing the same - along with an altered philosophy - at linebacker.