Cowboys’ decision-makers outline draft philosophy, plan for filling roster holes…

April 23, 2025 10:02 am GMT+1

Jerry Jones has a high opinion of the Dallas Cowboys’ draft process. The main reason is because the team’s owner and general manager believes he’s a good listener.

“We’re in agreement so much, we’re one of the best drafting teams in the NFL,” Jones said Tuesday during the team’s annual pre-draft news conference. “I’ll say that, we are. That’s because of the hard work that goes into getting there and it’s because of, in my mind, the process used to make the decisions. I do not make the decision about that player. That’s being made cumulatively. … Nobody around here is afraid to really step up and say, ‘Wait a minute! Let’s look at this real good.’ (Brian Schottenheimer) has already shown me, sitting beside him, he’ll work my ass over.”

The Cowboys have 10 picks in this week’s draft, beginning with No. 12. And while they’ve filled some roster holes via trades and free agency, there’s plenty of work left. It’s fair to question if they will be able to address everything with just those picks.

Following the news conference, Jones said they are looking at two “pretty substantive” trades that could happen before the draft starts Thursday or after it concludes Saturday.

Their biggest areas of need are running back, No. 2 wide receiver, cornerback and defensive tackle. Could Dallas have a perfect draft where all four are addressed with quality starters? Sure, but it’s much more likely that the seventh round will end and some help will still be needed. A move for a veteran at one of those positions would make a lot of sense. The last thing the Cowboys want to do is enter every round looking to fill a particular need. The goal is to select the best player available at each pick. That’s when their drafting has been at its best.

“I think we overall did a much better job than last year,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said, “of doing quite a bit of volume in terms of improving our roster and giving us the opportunity and having an environment where we can pick the best player. I think our work we did in free agency is really going to pay off. I think it’s going to make us a deeper football team. And what we add through this draft should just make us better and increase the depth that we have. Most of the time, 99 percent of the time, that’s our goal in free agency. Not necessarily to go out and sign the highest-paid guys.

“Obviously, we signed one. He was our own, Osa Odighizuwa, we signed to a big deal. That’s the way we look at free agency. Historically, we’ve had a lot of success in getting those guys, which in turn has led to, as Jerry mentioned, if you look at the number of starters you got, the number of Pro Bowlers, the number of All-Pro guys, we’ve drafted at a high level compared to the rest of the league.”

During the news conference, free-agent cornerback Stephon Gilmore was seen leaving The Star. Gilmore, 34, started 17 games for Dallas in 2023. He spent last season with the Minnesota Vikings, starting 15 games.

“We’re always looking to make our roster better,” Stephen Jones said. “That’s what I’d say about any player. … We do feel like we have some good corners. But we’re always looking to make things better. Now, we have players who we like to think love to come back and say hi. It doesn’t always mean because they’re in the building that there’s a deal in the works. But in general, our player acquisition is year-round.”

This year’s draft will be the first for Schottenheimer as head coach. He is the third different head coach that vice president of player personnel Will McClay has worked with since taking over Dallas’ draft in 2014. Since Schottenheimer has been on staff the previous three seasons, the transition process has been smoother than if Dallas brought in a new head coach from outside the building.

“Schotty knows what he wants,” McClay said. “He explains it very clearly. He understands our process. It’s been a seamless process. I was talking to the scouts the other day. We’re the wholesalers. We know where the fruit are. We’re getting with the coaches. The coaches make up the recipe, and then (the owners) they own the restaurant. That’s how we all work together to try to get this thing the right way. And there’s a consistent way that we do it. Schotty is saying the little ingredients that they want. They’re a little bit different from this staff or that staff. It’s the communication and then us drilling down to try and find those things that make the little bit of difference.”

In a perfect world, the Cowboys would come out of the first three rounds with starters at wide receiver, cornerback and running back. The depth of this class and where they’re picking make it a realistic possibility. But they needed a pass rusher more than a wide receiver in 2020 and a cornerback more than a pass rusher in 2021. In those two drafts, they took the best players available and ended up with two of their best players, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons. It’s something that is talked about often at The Star and is the reason there aren’t many positions that can be ruled out early in this year’s draft.

“I think the biggest thing is just to be open and honest,” Schottenheimer said, “to create a format, which we certainly have done where there was open dialogue and there was great communication. At the end of the day, you want conviction. You decide, ‘This is the player we’re going to select,’ you want to be convicted by what’s the vision for the player. That’s part of our responsibility as a staff to answer some of those questions. The systems on both sides of the ball and special teams will be flexible enough to adjust. When we line up to play our first game, there’s going to be 11 players out there and the best players are going to be the ones that play