Blogging The Boys
Kellen Moore is going to be connected to the Cowboys job a lot over the coming weeks.
When the Dallas Cowboys decided to walk away from five-year head coach Mike McCarthy, they made one thing abundantly clear: Fixing the offense was this offseason’s number one priority.
Even before quarterback Dak Prescott went down with a season-ending injury, the Cowboys’ offense was a big disappointment during McCarthy’s final season in Dallas. With Prescott healthy for the first eight games of the regular season, Dallas averaged just 21 points per game, scoring 24 or more points in a single contest twice.
If you dive a bit deeper into some more advanced stats, things don’t get much better. Dallas’ offense was in the bottom 10 in nearly every advanced offensive static, ranking 24th in EPA/Play (-0.052), 22nd in Offensive Success Rate (41.3%), 24th in Dropback EPA (-0.052), and 20th in Rush Success Rate (38.1%).
Dallas had no real run game to speak of, and there was a clear lack of creativity in the passing offense. While things did get a little better on offense in the second half of the season, albeit against weaker opponents, the lack of creativity still posed problems, coupled with some questionable play-calling.
This all led to McCarthy’s eventual departure, and now the Cowboys turn their attention to finding their next head coach who can get their offense back on track. There are plenty of candidates to consider, but one stands out as the best potential fit. He has a history in Dallas and helped their offense reach some of the highest regular-season heights in franchise history. That guy is current Eagles’ offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
While Moore’s time in Dallas did not end on the greatest note, there’s no denying he had the offense operating at a high level during his time as the team’s offensive coordinator. With Moore as their OC, here’s where the Cowboys ranked in some key team offensive statistics during each of his four seasons.
Under Moore, the Cowboys were consistently one of the best offenses in football. The 35-year-old did plenty of good things during his time in Dallas, but arguably the best thing he did was get the most out of Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott.
Prescott had two of the best seasons of his nine-year career with Moore as his offensive coordinator. Even with an injury-shortened season in 2020 and undoubtedly the unluckiest year of his pro career in 2022, Prescott was one of the NFL’s best during...
