5 Biggest challenges the Dallas Cowboys face in 2020

4. Balance between Moore and McCarthy

The Cowboys had a big overhaul when it came to their coaching staff. Gone along with Jason Garrett was defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli and his top assistant Kris Richard. Special teams coordinator Keith O’Quinn was also out as were the majority of the team’s positional coaches.

They did, however, decide to hang on to one high-profile assistant as Mike McCarthy decided to retain offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. The former Boise State quarterback was the Cowboys quarterback coach in 2018, which was his first season in the coaching ranks. He then found himself promoted the following offseason to offensive coordinator and helped the offense improve dramatically from their previous seasons under Scott Linehan.

A very well respected football mind, Moore is an up and coming coordinator and McCarthy has even said he will allow him to continue to call plays, which is a change from how McCarthy operated in Green Bay. As encouraging as this is, the two need to make sure they find a nice balance together.

Last season, it felt as though Moore and Jason Garrett were not on the same page all the time. Garrett is known for being wildly conservative whereas Moore liked to mix things up as we saw early in the season. For the first few weeks, Moore’s offense was very pass-heavy and it was working. Then, it felt as though the brakes were put on and the offense stalled often — leading to three losses in a row following wins in their first three games.

There’s no way of knowing for sure what led to the change but it can be speculated that Garrett started to impress more of his offense into the team, which led to some confusion on the field and a lack of tempo.

This year, McCarthy and Moore need to make sure they’re on the same page. As long as they are in harmony, the offense will finally have a true identity — which can lead to sustained success.