Stephen Jones on Cowboys' draft process

If you make even the slightest connection to Jerry Jones and the NFL draft, expect something sarcastic.

On Saturday I tweeted that the Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager had arrived in Indianapolis for the NFL scouting combine. Within minutes there were several reactions. One follower tweeted, “Jerry … Talent evaluation at it’s (sic) best.”

Jones has earned the reputation because of the Cowboys’ poor drafts, but there is also a misconception at how the Cowboys’ draft is run.

“That Jerry sits up there and out of the clear blue just grabs a guy and says, ‘We’re going to take him,’” executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “I mean, are you kidding me? I mean that’s just not how it works. Most of the time there is a consensus and you work through it and work to it, and it’s well thought out. We use all our resources. We spend millions of dollars in our scouting department and spend a lot of money on our coaches. Everybody has tremendous input and I think it’s a good system.”

The “most of the time,” part of that quote stands out.

“Everybody will have a chance to have an opinion and then of course Jerry will weigh in and most of the time we tend to agree,” Stephen Jones said, “but when we don’t obviously he’ll make that decision.”