BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Jason Garrett didn't take a direct flight back to Dallas from the NFL meetings. The plane made a stop in Orlando.

Once there, the Cowboys head coach got the chance to stretch his legs and put Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch through a workout.

"This will be the first one I'm going to be a part of," Garrett said early Wednesday morning before leaving for Orlando.

It won't be the last. Garrett and seven other members of the Cowboys organization will fly to Columbus to conduct a workout with Ohio State players Friday.

The goal of these visits is to get a feel for who the players are and what they're about. The Cowboys' coaching staff got a head start on that process at the Senior Bowl.

Since then there has been the combine in Indianapolis. Scouts and coaches have watched more tape.

"But if you can get a chance to go be closer to them and get your hands on them and ask them to do specific things you would ask a player to do, I think that gives you a better chance to evaluate the guy," Garrett said. "You also want to find out who the guy is as a person. That's a really, really important thing to us."

Football character is a big part of the discussion. So is personal character. The more exposure the Cowboys have with potential draft picks, the better equipped they are to make the proper evaluation.

"When you're picking at No. 4, you can target the pool maybe a little bit more than if you're picking at Nos. 26, 27, 28, wherever we picked last year," Garrett said. "Our coaches will go out and spend time doing individual workouts throughout the month of March and have a chance to get their hands on these guys, see them in a classroom setting, give them some information, take them out on the field, see how they respond to hard coaching."

One interesting note regarding Lynch and the #Cowboys: today went so well, I'm told the sides are expected to meet again prior to the draft. — Rand Getlin (@RandGetlin) March 24, 2016

Ohio State had 14 players at the combine last month. Not all of them will be at Friday's session but most will, including defensive end Joey Bosa, who is under consideration for the Cowboys at the No. 4 pick.

"One of the challenges when you go to these big schools that have all these players on their Pro Day, it's just hard to have any access," Garrett said. "Everybody's there. It's a little bit of a circus.

"We had representatives at the Pro Day but we said, 'Let's not do that. Let's see if we can arrange something else to have more personal contact with these guys.'"

Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli and special teams coach Rich Bisaccia will be part of the contingent along with some Cowboys' position coaches.

Owner Jerry Jones and executive vice president Stephen Jones accompanied Garrett to Orlando.

The Cowboys intend to have private workouts with quarterbacks Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. They have already conducted one with Dak Prescott.

What the Cowboys attempt to do in free agency is address the threadbare spots on their roster. It's not always about getting the best player on the market at a particular position. It's more about ensuring there's enough quality across the board that the team isn't desperate when it's on the clock in late April.

"You want to go into the draft as cleanly as you can in regards to your needs," Garrett said. "You don't want to be a team that's sitting there saying, 'Boy, we've got to get this guy because he plays this position.'"

Garrett will tell you every position is in play at the fourth pick. But he isn't focused on the strategy of the draft at this stage.

"The biggest thing with the draft right now is we're continuing to evaluate players," Garrett said. "You don't want to get into draft strategy too early. You want to evaluate the players and have a really good feel for who they are at all positions, and then you stack them up and you try to make some decisions as to who can best help your football team."

Twitter: @ DavidMooreDMN