MOBILE, Ala. – The Cowboys are getting ready to watch some of the top collegiate prospects from around the country at the annual Senior Bowl this week in Mobile, Alabama.
This year, they'll go into it with two first-round picks looming in the 2026 NFL Draft as well as a new defensive coordinator in Christian Parker. The marriage of a new defensive scheme and the players that have to execute it is crucial, and Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay has already begun to lay the groundwork between his staff and Parker's vision.
"We've had general conversations to begin with, but you know he wants good players and he wants smart players, which every coach does," McClay said. "We'll get down to the nitty gritty once they get the rest of the staff together, but we talked about our roster. He has a vision for the guys that we have, so it's off to a good start right now."
With the hire still being fresh, McClay and the scouting staff still have plenty of conversations to be had about what the defensive structure will be. They'll dig in more to that when Parker's staff is rounded out.
In the interview process with Parker, the Cowboys got good word on him from outside the building, and saw everything they were told come to fruition when meeting the 34-year old first time coordinator.
"Number one, everybody you talk to, nobody said anything negative about him," McClay said of Parker. "When we got the chance to meet and talk to him, he's wise beyond his years number one, but the way that the puts things together, the way he talks about the defense, his awareness of the front and the back end, excited to work with him and the staff that he's going to put together because I think there's some exciting things that we can do... He's going to put us up front on the defensive side."
One of the things the Cowboys were searching for in the process was a teacher, who can help some of the younger players on the Cowboys' roster. One name he pointed out? Shavon Revel Jr., who was a rookie third-round pick for Dallas last season and is a player the team has high hopes for.
"He's talked about some of the young guys. He did talk about [Shavon] Revel and the ability of what he sees, some of the things that he can help him with," McClay said. "Young players and making them better, the guys in the secondary, [DaRon] Bland and our safeties, and so he's got a vision for those guys."
Parker's past track record of developing young corners told McClay and the Cowboys a lot about what kind of a coach he's been.
"When you develop Patrick Surtain and [Quinyon] Mitchell and [Cooper] DeJean, and they've all been under his kind of tutelage, it gives us good hope in knowing that he's a hell of a football coach and he'll improve that part, as well as the whole defense." McClay said.
The process it took to ultimately settle on Parker as the top candidate was a long one that required a lot of work, but McClay is proud of how it all played out.
"The exhaustive search that Schotty's done and all of us having a piece in it, much like we do during the process with players. We're going to go through the car wash and everybody's going to meet him and talk to him and get to know him," McClay said.
"We're going to sit around and talk about what we think. Just that whole process has been incredible to be able to go and dig and find out maybe stuff that you didn't know. The way that we went about it and finding that guy, as well as putting together the staff, it's an exhaustive process that I'm proud to be a part of because we've got some good guys."
There are still defensive staff decisions that need to be made, as the Cowboys moved on from four defensive assistants on Monday. McClay believes the entire organization is aligned in their vision from the top, down going forward for that process and beyond.
"I think that there's alignment and there's vision. As long as all of the connected pieces are connected, we have an opportunity to continue to grow and do good things. I just think that the alignment helps us all say things, hear things and look for things the same way…" McClay said.
"That's exciting about it, and as we're building with this new staff, as a collective group, we knew what we were looking for. We found that, and now we're excited to get the rest of the staff together."
Parker and the new defensive staff enters a position where the Cowboys also have two first-round picks, both of which could very well go to the defensive side of the ball. For McClay and the scouting staff, it's an exciting opportunity for the present and the future, but their prospect evaluation process doesn't change.
"We go through the full process like we do every year," McClay said. "Now, we have the opportunity to potentially get two in the first round. Everybody's going to be digging, doing the work, knowing the importance that those two picks will have on us not only next year, but in the years to come."
In order to set themselves up as best as they can for the draft, McClay and the Cowboys will take their usual approach of looking to fill holes in free agency so they can select the best available players, something they're confident they can do.
"We'll go through the free agency period, there's some good players out there," McClay said. "We'll have to figure out from a cap standpoint and all that stuff, but there are some good players out there. And we want to address it, but we want to address it the right way with the right kind of guys."
"Once we get the full staff together, and we'll get a lot of experience from different places that will give us input on players that they've coached before, coached against, so it just adds to it and we'll find the right guys if we're able to do some things in free agency."
