Keeping Kellen Moore as the Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator was brilliant.
When the Dallas Cowboys announced Mike McCarthy as the head coach this offseason, it was followed by speculation on the remainder of the staff. It was decided quickly that an entirely new defensive and special team’s staff would join McCarthy, but there was no final word on offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
Following his first season as a coordinator (and just his second in the coaching ranks after serving as the quarterbacks’ coach in 2018), Moore was mulling his options. One was to stay in Dallas with McCarthy, who liked what he did as a rookie play-caller. The other was to join the Washington Huskies program, which is being coached by his former collegiate head coach, Chris Petersen.
In the end, Moore decided to stay put in Dallas for at least the 2020 NFL season which was a smart move on his part. Should he continue to have success, he could become one of the next big assistants looking for a head coaching job in the NFL.
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As for the Cowboys, they were just as smart for keeping him — and now with the news that the NFL postseason is officially being cut down to two games, they look brilliant.
With COVID-19 cutting out all the offseason programs and now half the preseason, this gives teams even less time to get their coaches on the field with their players — which puts teams trying to install a new system into place at an extreme disadvantage.
That’s not great news for Mike Nolan, the new defensive coordinator who is trying to make big changes on that side of the ball, but for Moore, it will be business as usual. And for him, business was pretty good in 2019.
Working under head coach Jason Garrett last season, Moore led the Cowboys to the sixth-best offense in the NFL in points scored and second in overall yards (according to Pro Football Reference). And now with Dak Prescott signing his franchise tender, Moore will have the same quarterback under center but another huge threat at wideout with No. 17 overall pick CeeDee Lamb.
Of course, they won’t have to rely on Lamb too much since they have two 1,000-yard receivers in Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup as well as a two-time NFL rushing leader in Ezekiel Elliott.
Moore already proved he knows how to get the most out of the returning players and they all responded well to his play-calling.
With their limited time to prepare for the regular season, that’s going to be huge for them.