The Dallas Cowboys passing game has been a point of concern and Rishard Matthews is about to be available, but the wideout wouldn’t move the needle.
Through the first three games of the 2018 season, the preseason concerns about the Dallas Cowboys offense have been raised even higher. The offensive line has looked lesser than expected, partially due to Travis Frederick’s absence and also due to ineffective play. More obviously, Dak Prescott and the passing attack have looked quite abysmal to this point.
Coming into the year, the talk about how things could go wrong for the Cowboys passing attack centered on the lack of weapons. With Dez Bryant being released and Jason Garrett retiring, Dallas’ “big” moves to fill the voids left were to sign Allen Hurns and draft Michael Gallup. Put simply, the receiving corps is lacking in terms of top-end talent.
However, an opportunity has seemingly arrived for the Cowboys to add another talented player to the mix. Wide receiver Rishard Matthews has been released by the Tennessee Titans after asking for the move due to a lack of targets in the offense (per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, among others).
Though Matthews, who was dealing with injuries in the preseason, hasn’t done much at all through three games this season, he’s been a productive player in the previous two years in Tennessee. Over the past two seasons, he’s hauled in 118 catches for 1,640 yards and 13 touchdowns in 30 games. He’s a versatile threat in the passing game, without question.
With that, it would seem like a match made in Dallas. However, that’s not the case. In fact, the Cowboys shouldn’t even consider bringing on the wide receiver.
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This isn’t about a lack of talent in regards to Matthews. Having more players who can effectively do things in an NFL game isn’t a bad thing. However, what this is about is the simple truth that bringing in Matthews wouldn’t affect the Cowboys passing game in itself. Simply adding him to the current offense wouldn’t change a thing.
The issue to this point with the Cowboys offense isn’t about lacking receiving corps, but rather about how the offense is being run. There is far too little motion, play-action and other devices as a part of the Dallas offense right now. Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan is running the most vanilla brand of offense that’s seemingly possible.
In the modern NFL, that doesn’t work anymore. As teams around the league are having immense success with play-action heavy schemes and by moving parts around pre-snap to get reads on the defense and to dictate matchups, the Cowboys are content to just line up and run. This makes the life of the defense substantially easier while making life for Prescott and the Dallas offense near unlivable.
Before even considering a signing of someone like Matthews, the Cowboys have to first fix what they’re doing on offense. Without that, it won’t matter who is in the receiving corps. The only thing that will affect change with the Dallas passing attack is changes in the schematics, not changes in the roster.