All along in the pre-draft process, the Cowboys preached that they had changed their ways. They'd hinted several times with the media that they would take the player with the highest grade on their draft board no matter what position they played. Drafting for need only was over.
"When you talk about the draft, it's two fold," Cowboys VP of Player Personnel Will McClay told 105.3 The Fan. "It's position of need, and best player available. You've got to be prepared to react in those situations. As it was coming down, we were having discussions about, ok this guy is gone, that guy is gone, and we're talking about it all the way through. And then when it gets closer to our pick when we're two down, Jerry, the GM, he starts having these conversations. We start talking about it, we add a couple of guys that we like also on the defensive side of the ball, but at the end of the day it was the best player on our board. We discussed it, and Jerry made the call."
So, when it came time for their pick to be announced, everyone was on pins and needles, waiting to find out if the Cowboys practiced what they had preached the entire offseason.
"With the 17th overall pick, the Dallas Cowboys select CeeDee Lamb," NFL Commisioner Roger Goodell said from the basement of his home, and Cowboys fans across the world immediately began to celebrate.
Finally, the Cowboys were able to prove that they could draft the best player and figure everything else out later. But what made this year different than the others? New head coach Mike McCarthy.
"This was a unique situation. We've been with the same staff for ten years and had an understanding of their likes and dislikes. So, then, you get a new coach, a new staff comes in. We started entertaining what they wanted and what they were looking for in free agency," McClay said. "But one of the first things McCarthy said that made me jump up and down was players over scheme. If we don't have a scheme diverse enough to handle taking good players and figuring out where they fit ... that was a unique thing to hear a coach say because most of it is system based when they look at things. That opened the door for a lot of things."
That open door led to them picking arguably the best wide receiver in the draft at pick 17. But was everyone with the organization on board when it came time to make the pick?
"It was unanimous," McClay said. "I think the commitment, and the way that we had talked about things building up to it, we we're going to get the best player for us that comes down there, because when you're in the first round you're looking for a guy that can come in and make an immediate impact and check all the boxes, and if they have the skillset to place themselves at the top of your draft board, you'd be crazy not to go with that. And he is a player of great value."