It did not take long for the to find Jason Garrett's replacement. Le s than 24 hours after the team announced that it was finally moving on from the long-time coach, it was widely reported that the Cowboys former head coach Mike McCarthy. The merits of this hiring can be debated ad nauseam (and you can listen to me, Will Brinson, and Patrik Walker discu s them in the podcast linked below), but that's not what we're here to discu s. We're here to look forward, at what McCarthy needs to do to find succe s for however long he holds the position.He's coming into a job where immediate succe s is the expectation, with Jerry Jones stating that he preferred a candidate with previous head coaching experience to a coordinator or college coach due to his that the latter types of candidates experience far le s succe s in their jobs than the former. McCarthy has a strong roster on his side, but roster talent alone is not enough to find the kind of succe s that Jones envisions, as we saw this season.Below, we'll detail five
Daniel Castro Jersey different ways that McCarthy himself can add value and help the Cowboys get back to where they want to be. 1. Have a plan to maximize Prescott's contract has expired, but Jerry and Stephen Jones have stated on numerous occasions that he will be the quarterback for the Cowboys next season. Whether on the franchise tag or a long-term deal, Dak is going to be under center for this team, likely for McCarthy's entire tenure. And that means any succe s the coach has can and will start with how he's able to develop Prescott.McCarthy himself admitted as such in an with The Athletic. "The offense has to be built around making the quarterback succe sful," McCarthy said. "That's what I've always believed, and that won't change."Building around Prescott is far different from building around . The two have in common the ability to make plays by using their athleticism to escape from the rush and create outside of the offensive structure, but apart from that they are not all that similar as pa sers. Rodgers was able to find great succe s early in McCarthy's tenure with throws to the perimeter of the field on isolation routes, such as back-shoulder fades to the likes of , , and later . Rodgers was also averse to play-action pa sing, as he was not very comfortable turning his back to the defense. Prescott is far better at attacking the middle of the field than the sidelines, which means the Cowboys should use different route combinations than those that populated the Packers' playbook. Dak has also been a far more effective pa ser when throwing after a run fake than out of straight drop-backs. The
David Dahl Jersey Cowboys incorporated a ton of play-action early this season, but their usage tailed off as the year went along. Getting back to that strength should be an important component of McCarthy's offense. An increased use of shifts and motion (especially at-snap motion, which the and have led the way on this season) should be part of the plan as well, in order to keep defenses gue sing about what's coming before and after the snap. Plays that include a shift and/or motion have tended to be more efficient than those that don't, and while they likely cannot be used on every play, their extensive use should be encouraged in order to put Prescott and his skill position corps in position to succeed.McCarthy will have at his disposal one of the NFL's best offensive lines, with three multi-time anchoring the unit. That should allow him to afford Prescott excellent protection on the regular, but that doesn't mean the majority of the pa sing plays should be as slow-developing as many of Green Bay's were. Prescott excels in the quick game, and especially on the RPO concepts that comprised so much of his offense at Mi si sippi State. The Packers did not use RPO action all that offense during McCarthy's tenure, but he would be wise to change that tune in his new job. Utilizing Prescott as a runner, especially in short yardage situations, should also be on the docket. He's a good decision-maker
Jonathan Lucroy Jersey on read-option runs, and the Cowboys did not tap into that part of his skill set often enough under Garrett's leadership. There will be a temptation to base the offense around the exploits of $90 million running back , but despite the fact that he is an obviously good player and should be heavily involved in the team's plans, it needs to be accepted up and down the organization that running is far le s efficient than pa sing and thus Elliott should be viewed as a complement to Prescott as opposed to the other way around. That's true whether Prescott performs like the MVP candidate he was for more than half of this season or the above-average quarterback he has been for the majority of his career. The $90 million for Elliott has already been spent. (Or will be spent. The deal hasn't actually started yet.) You don't have to run the ball down opponents' throats to try to justify the price tag. Instead, you should utilize Elliott's versatility to buoy what Prescott can do.The Cowboys can put Elliott in better position to succeed than he has been over the
Pat Valaika Jersey past few seasons by not tasking him with running into stacked boxes as often ( did a far better job of this than his predece sor, Scott Linehan); not running him up the middle on first downs as often; utilizing him more often in "and-short" situations and near the goal line, where running is often more effective than pa sing into windows constricted by a lack of space; and getting him more involved in the pa sing game than he was this season -- and not just in the screen game.It's also perfectly fine for the Cowboys to lighten Elliott's load by reducing his snap share and giving a bit more work to . The explosive rookie ranked first in the NFL in Pro Football Focus' Elusive Rating this season, forcing 26 mi sed tackles on only 101 touches and averaging 4.51 yards after contact per attempt. He was an excellent receiver during his time at Memphis, and that part of his skill set went under-utilized throughout his rookie season. (He had only 15 catches.) In addition to providing the defense with a different look and actually getting value out of last year's fourth-round pick, doing this would have the benefit of not over-working Elliott, who has had at least 350 touches in three of his four NFL seasons and is under contract for more years. If the Cowboys want him to come close
Colorado Rockies Jersey to making it through that deal, they need to pull back on the throttle a little bit. Dallas would also do well to prioritize finding more Pollard types who can be threats in both the run game and the pa s game, as well as receivers who can play either outside or in the slot. Keeping defenses gue sing is an important part of succe s in the NFL these days, and that's far more difficult to do if you line up the same way on every snap. Versatility in the run game and the pa s game can only help.With that in mind, it's obviously important for Dallas to retain in addition to
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