Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay is widely regarded as a top GM candidate, but with owner Jerry Jones and son Stephen Jones at the top of the team’s unique hierarchy, McClay will never get a shot as a general manager in Dallas. However, his actions over the past few years have made it clear that he is happy right where he is, and he confirmed as much in a recent interview with Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

McClay, 55, joined the Cowboys as a scout in 2002. He took over the team’s scouting department as Assistant Director of Player Personnel in 2013, ran his first draft in 2014, and landed his current title in 2017. Since 2014, Dallas has drafted 10 Pro Bowlers, and while the Cowboys are generally restrained in free agency, McClay has had some success in finding contributors on modest FA contracts.

McClay, who is Black, has appeared on the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s list of recommended GM hires on multiple occasions, but he turned down interview requests in the 2016-18 hiring cycles. Though there have been no public reports of interview requests since that time, that could be because other teams are aware of how difficult it would be to pry McClay from Dallas.