Cowboys Scouting Staff

Does anyone have a recent media guide? I have a theory that I wanted to investigate about the Cowboys scouting staff and I couldn't find a lot about them.

Have you noticed that the team likes to pick a lot of the same positions over and over again? Plus those same positions tend to be rated higher on their board? TE, LB, CB, RB, WR, in particular?

I think this is partially due to the fact that those positions can get on the field sooner in various sub-packages/STs, so they team tends to value their contributions more. However, I think it may also play into the scouts backgrounds. For that same reason, it may explain why the team is putrid at drafting other positions.

Ciskowski - Before he became a scout, he did some coaching.....DBs, OL, DL, TEs.
Chris Hall - Can't find much on him. Doesn't appear to have ever played or coached.
Sam Garza - Scab NFL QB, CFL QB, 3 years as a QB coach at UTEP
Walter Juliff - Doesn't really seem to have any significant playing or coaching background. A few years as a graduate assistant and HS coach who worked with punters.
Drew Fabianich - Played QB, former defensive coach
John Wojciechowski - Former DE
Bill Dekraker - Can't find anything about him playing or coaching
Mitch LaPoint - Can't find anything about him playing or coaching

I guess my overall thought is that they really don't have anyone that has played OL, so it is no wonder they can't scout them. Also troublesome is how few scouts for Dallas even played or coached in the past.

Compare this to SF, whose Director of Player Personnel is a former offensive tackle. Their director of college scouting is a former center. Their national scout is a former All Big 10 offensive lineman. Their GM is a former DL coach. They also have another former DL coach, former NFL RB and a former college LBer. I couldn't find anyone with a secondary or receiving background.....arguably two of the areas that they are weakest.

Anyway, I found this interesting. A few minutes of internet research leads to some pretty clear trends about why teams may fail to scout certain positions. You'd think that may jump out to them as well.

I've always been curious about how scouts are even chosen and hired in the first place. It seems that most start out as gofers and work their way up or are castoff coaches that are somehow in the GM's network of friends or associates. It doesn't seem to be like coaches where they actually start out at the bottom and slowly work their way up strictly (or mostly) on merit.

And that seems to be especially the case with Jerry. There isn't much turnover, and when there is, guys get hired like Will McClay who coached the Desperados and may have been under contract anyway. I get the feeling that even more than with coaches, Jerry wants guys he's comfortable with.

I wonder how these guys get graded. In the disastrous 2009 draft, Jason Williams, Robert Brewster, and the two failed Cincy DBs were all from the same region scouted by the same scout. I've always doubted that was coincidence and wondered if there were any consequences for having all those guys wrong. I know there is some degree of cross-checking by someone watching tape, but I wouldn't be surprised if that guy was some kind of Jerry favorite whose opinion was too highly regarded.

ThoughtExperiment said:

I've always been curious about how scouts are even chosen and hired in the first place. It seems that most start out as gofers and work their way up or are castoff coaches that are somehow in the GM's network of friends or associates. It doesn't seem to be like coaches where they actually start out at the bottom and slowly work their way up strictly (or mostly) on merit.

And that seems to be especially the case with Jerry. There isn't much turnover, and when there is, guys get hired like Will McClay who coached the Desperados and may have been under contract anyway. I get the feeling that even more than with coaches, Jerry wants guys he's comfortable with.

I wonder how these guys get graded. In the disastrous 2009 draft, Jason Williams, Robert Brewster, and the two failed Cincy DBs were all from the same region scouted by the same scout. I've always doubted that was coincidence and wondered if there were any consequences for having all those guys wrong. I know there is some degree of cross-checking by someone watching tape, but I wouldn't be surprised if that guy was some kind of Jerry favorite whose opinion was too highly regarded.

Keep reading...

The 2009 draft was punctuated by coach pet cats from what I have read. Jason Williams was a Wade guy, Brewster a Houck guy and Campo loved him some DeAngelo Smith and Mike Mickens.

You never know with Jones, who he is going to listen to. That's the problem. He has no eye for talent. Another real GM can look at a guy and break ties and whatnot because they've probably scouted at one time or another. We are stuck with a rube who listens to the guy that yells the loudest.

The bigger problem I see is that the personalities in play may be a bit too comfortable with Jerry. The newest area scout is Jim Abrams, most everyone else in the scouting department is a Garrett relative, buddies way back with Jerry and Garrett's old man or someone who started out fetching coffee at Valley Ranch back in the early 2000s. There also seems to be a clear pecking order, where lifers like Walt Juliff tend to be bigger players than say Sam Garza, who was kind of an Ireland guy. What's real scary is the higher your go up the chain, the longer they have been around. Guys like Ciskowski, that creepy hobo-looking Chris Hall, Juliff and Todd Williams were all around back in the days Pre-Parcells and lorded over horrific drafts. From my understanding, we also have one of the smaller scouting staffs in the NFL.

The college scouting isn't as big of a deal to me than the pro personnel side, which has Garrett's damn brother, lifer Henry Sroka and Will McClay. While they seem to be doing better after getting decent guys the last couple of years, they are very uneven overall.

Exactly, Booze, I've always thought Jerry passing out draft picks was a huge problem too. We're gonna take my pet cat here. Rob, you say you need a corner to make your system work, ok, here you go. Ol' Buddy Houck, you've been asking for two rounds now for someone for your group, we'll take your guy here. Hey Dave, everyone's dumps on you but you've been a good soldier, this time around we'll get that DB you liked.

Not only is it a dumb way to draft, but it just reinforces this idea that Jerry is the boss. He's the one you lobby to in order to get your pick. Which I'm sure is one reason he does it.

Sort of off the subject a little, but it's interesting to me how the Bengals for years got railed for being cheapskates who barely had a scouting staff and let their coaches do the work. But lately they've drafted pretty well. I'm not sure that couldn't actually work as long as you knew which coaches to listen to and which ones not to (like Lacewell said we failed to do when Jimmy left) and you had a level-headed person at the top organizing it all.

Reading this shit makes me all the more depressed.

Insider time.. I've been told that our current scouts are all bigtime yes men and butt kissers. One "source" even told me they are not respected at all by other team's scouting staffs.

The name "Lacewell" just makes me so nauseous. This dude is a cancer who has his dirty hands all over the organization.

In an ideal world if I were to somehow become GM of this shitty team, the first thing I would do is fire all Garrett's, then have Switzer, Chris Hall, and Todd Williams sodomized with a red hot longhorn, and finally have Lacewell stoned to death as part of the halftime show during the home opener.

In fact, anyone around Pre-Parcells should castrated and abandoned on a desert island.

I can't believe we brought Campo back and let him fuck up even more drafts. He's the reason we didn't get Jason Taylor. Said his legs were too thin. Fucking moron.

ThoughtExperiment said:

Sort of off the subject a little, but it's interesting to me how the Bengals for years got railed for being cheapskates who barely had a scouting staff and let their coaches do the work. But lately they've drafted pretty well. I'm not sure that couldn't actually work as long as you knew which coaches to listen to and which ones not to (like Lacewell said we failed to do when Jimmy left) and you had a level-headed person at the top organizing it all.

Keep reading...

It is making Brown have less voices in his head. I am not a big fan of letting coaches scout, but when you have two many people telling the unqualified decision maker what is best, it can lead to error.

boozeman said:

It is making Brown have less voices in his head. I am not a big fan of letting coaches scout, but when you have two many people telling the unqualified decision maker what is best, it can lead to error.

Keep reading...

All I know is if I work my ass off all year scouting players only to have a shitty coach like Campo override my work I'm kicking Campo's ass and then finding another job.

Just when I was starting to get down on the Cowboys, threads like this pull me back in!

LAZARUS_LOGAN said:

Reading this shit makes me all the more depressed.

Keep reading...

Me & you both buddy. I hate Jerry so much that winning a Super Bowl would be tarnished by the fact I'd have to see his effing face mugging for the camera and running his mouth nonstop.

I dont think I've been more sick about the Cowboys than the Monday night football game a few years back where it was all about Jerry and they flashed his ugly mug across the screen at every opportunity

I sat there thinking the Dallas Cowboys are dead in the water and may as well change the name to the Dallas Jerry Jones's, drop the star and change the logo on the helmut to a jackass

Not one in the group knows how to scout offensive lineman for shit. That's for sure.

cmd34(work) said:

Insider time.. I've been told that our current scouts are all bigtime yes men and butt kissers. One "source" even told me they are not respected at all by other team's scouting staffs.

Keep reading...

I wouldn't be surprised.

boozeman said:

I wouldn't be surprised.

Keep reading...

I would be surprised if there is one that isn't a yes man, ass kisser. That is what it takes with a wannabe GM that needs to go back to the oil business. When he overruled the scouts board and passed on Floyd, the look on Garrett's face told the story. If you are in the Cowboys organization, lowering your head a taking Jerry's shit is not only expected, but required if they want a job.

I'm glad we passed on Floyd for two reasons:

1) Character issues - We don't need any more of those players ever. Contrary to what Jerry believes, having an arrest record doesn't make you a better football player.

2) Our offensive line is a clusterf*** and Romo won't last another 2 years behind it. Especially if the refs let him get mauled every game.

Where did you hear that Floyd had character issues?

ThoughtExperiment said:

Where did you hear that Floyd had character issues?

Keep reading...

I actually tipped the team off to his character issues from my sources.

ThoughtExperiment said:

Where did you hear that Floyd had character issues?

Keep reading...

I heard he couldn't dance, which apparently is a new criteria.
http://www.dallascowboys.com/multim...fb3d5e55#a05d73c6-05e5-4b40-be60-4634b404e0bc