Are the Dallas Cowboys changing Mike McCarthy more than he is changing them?
New Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy’s shocking announcement that offensive coordinator Kellen Moore is going to be the play caller in 2020 still isn’t sitting well.
At his introductory press conference last week, McCarthy said — while he hadn’t made a final decision — he liked calling plays and would probably would do it as he’s always done it.
McCarthy spoke of the success the Cowboys had last season with the league’s No. 1 ranked offense, and he wants to build upon the relationship between quarterback Dak Prescott and Moore. The Cowboys hope that Prescott, who posted career-bests with 4,902 passing yards and 30 touchdowns, will sign a lucrative contract extension in the next few months.
Ultimately, McCarthy likes Moore’s potential as a rising coach and he believes keeping the continuity would be best for Prescott.
It sounds good and reasonable — except for the fact that McCarthy is the one known as the proven and notable quarterback whisperer. He’s the one with the background of working with the likes of Joe Montana, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.
And McCarthy was the one who spent all last season away from football studying offenses and improving his system so he could succeed in his next opportunity after being fired in Green Bay because his offense allegedly grew stale.
And one reason the Cowboys failed in 2019, said owner Jerry Jones, was partly due to decisions made by inexperienced coaches (read: Moore), despite the gaudy numbers on offense.
McCarthy’s experience in coordinating an offense and play calling were among the big pluses of the whole coaching change.
Yet, in McCarthy’s first year in Dallas he is going to turn the offense over to a second-year play caller.
Is this truly his idea or one that’s being pushed on him by Jones?
Time will tell.
Hopefully, the big difference between 2019 and 2020 is that McCarthy will apply a heavier hand to Moore’s decisions than Garrett did and truly be a security blanket for the young coach in key situations.
Vice president Stephen Jones said McCarthy was going to have more power regarding staff and player personnel than any coach with the Cowboys since Bill Parcells from 2003-2006, thus more than Garrett and Wade Phillips who preceded him.
Yet, here we are and McCarthy is the one subjugating his ego at the outset of his tenure and changing his ways and style to fit what the Cowboys have been doing.
And it’s not just with the offense and play calling.
“We just talked more about culture and the program and how I view things and how we did it in Green Bay and how they’ve done it here,” McCarthy said. “I feel great about what’s in place already here.”
Cowboys fans are hoping it all works out, but they were expecting that McCarthy was going to bring about a change from the way things were done, not more of the “same ol’ same ol’” that has fostered 24 years of frustration and just four playoff wins since their last Super Bowl title in 1996.
The Cowboys want McCarthy to be their messiah to take them back to the promised land.
In order to do so, he must be like the wise man in the Bible, who built his house on a rock rather than the foolish man who built it on the sand.
The former’s house was able to withstand the rain and flood. The latter’s fell — and great was its fall.
You can decide for yourself what type of foundation McCarthy is building upon.
