According to Adam Shefter NFL insider for ESPN, former Cowboys QB Jon Kitna will be named as the teams new QB coach with current QB coach Kellen Moore expected to be promoted to offensive coordinator. This news has caused a stir among the Dallas Cowboys faithful. Former OC Scott Linehan was removed from his duties much to the jubilation of those same fans but naming Kellen Moore as his replacement will ensure that their ecstasy will be short lived. Promoting Kellen Moore would not only be an unpopular decision by the Dallas Cowboys front office but a curious one as well. Would making Kellen Moore offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys be a significant improvement or at best a net zero gain?
I would be as shocked as any Dallas Cowboys fan if this rumour proves to be true. I was not on board with the hiring of Kellen Moore as quarterback coach to begin with or even keeping him around for 2019. Like many Cowboys fans, I thought that once Scott Linehan was let go that Kellen Moore would follow him out the door. Moore had followed Linehan from Detroit to Dallas and is very familiar with his offense. When Moore retired after he lost his backup quarterback job to Dak Prescott, he had no prior coaching experience but was hired as QB coach anyway. He now has one year as Prescott’s QB coach under his belt but during that time Dak did not show any significant signs of improvement so a promotion seems unwarranted. Apparently, that is not how the Dallas Cowboys front office feels. Both Jason Garrett and Dak Prescott are believed to be big fans of Kellen Moore and those within the organization think that he is a bright young football mind.
If Kellen Moore does get the job it is believed that due to his inexperience he will not be solely responsible for calling the offensive plays. That responsibility would likely fall to some combination of TE coach Doug Nussmeier (a former OC at the collegiate level) and head coach Jason Garrett himself as per Chris Mortensen of ESPN. The theory behind this is that the Cowboys can retain Kellen Moore who they believe is a rising star and rather than extending Garrett, the Cowboys will allow him to reclaim control of the offense and in essence coach for his job in 2019. While I am strongly in favour of not extending Jason Garrett and making him prove he can lead the team to the playoffs two years in a row, I am far less in favour of handing over the reigns of the offense to Jason Garrett. Garrett had his day in the sun as an offensive coordinator and after some immediate success in 2007, he never really built upon that before he was given the head coaching job. I am concerned that Jason Garrett’s ability as an offensive play caller is limited and his scheme out of date. It is also concerning to me that being the head coach, Garrett would have been handcuffed by his offensive coordinator when he should have had the final say regardless. It is obvious to most fans that Scott Linehan was not a good fit for Dak Prescott and that a change was required. But, if the offense is broken then Garrett and Moore cannot be the solution if they were part of the problem.
An official announcement has yet to be made and potentially the Dallas Cowboys could still bring in an outside candidate as OC and promote Kellen Moore to another role such as offensive passing game coordinator. It is my sincere hope that this will be the case and the Cowboys will not name Kellen Moore offensive coordinator but I will keep an open mind either way. The most important thing for Dallas Cowboy fans to consider is that whatever the situation will be going forward Scott Linehan is gone and the Cowboys front office will have an opportunity to evaluate Dak Prescott under slightly different (although unsettlingly similar) circumstances.
*Photo by Kieth Allison https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode