The Dallas Cowboys drew some serious criticism last April when they passed over highly decorated University of Florida defensive end Sharrif Floyd. Executive vice president Stephen Jones says the team’s decision to stay away from Floyd and ultimately trade down to No. 31 was motivated by the move from Rob Ryan’s 3-4 system to Monte Kiffin’s 4-3.
“I feel like we had him graded right, yes,” Jones said of Floyd. “Did we have him graded right for our system? That’s debatable.”
Floyd ended up being taken at No. 23 by the Vikings, and finished his rookie year with 2.5 sacks.
This year, Dallas taken care to make sure the scouts and coaches are on the same page--so not only will the prospects be graded properly, but they’ll be graded properly specifically for the Cowboys.
“I don’t want to single a guy out, but I think that can happen when you change a system and you move from what we were doing,” Jones said, “and we were so into that and then all of a sudden you move to a 4-3 and you’ve got new coaches in the room and what they’re trying to accomplish, then that one kind of slipped through the cracks a little bit on us. It won’t happen again.”
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