Figured it was time to start the 2023 Cowboys thread.
There’s been some significant shuffling since their close divisional round playoff loss at San Francisco this past January. The 2022 season was what most might call a “mixed success”. They went 12-5 despite missing Dak for 5 games.They won a road playoff game for the first time since the 1992 NFCCG. However, they still failed to advance beyond the divisional round.
1. Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has been replaced by Brian Schottenheimer. In Jerryland, this has probably been the most controversial of all offseason moves. Moore was seen as a young and upcoming offensive mind and his offenses produced. His biggest internal criticism (much of it from McCarthy himself who inherited Moore) was he liked the no-huddle too much and it tired the defense out due to not giving them enough rest while the offense blitzed down the field quickly. But this claim was not backed by empirical evidence since the defense last year under Dan Quinn actually performed superior beyond 60 snaps than they did prior and were near the top of the league in that metric. Schottenheimer, in theory, will slow things down and run it a bit more though it is interesting that McCarthy will call the plays. I don’t like these moves much, though I suspect some of the change is being overplayed. If you are good at passing, that will tend to eventually come out in the playcalling. We shall see once the season starts.
2. Zeke out and Tony Pollard on the franchise tag. This one was no surprise as Zeke was way too expensive to keep for 2023 and Pollard had already surpassed him as the biggest play-maker out of the backfield even before last season. Cowboys also brought in Ronald Jones which is a move I really like. He’s still young (25 years old) and doesn’t have a ton of miles on him but has been very effective when he plays.
3. Signed Brandon Cooks. This is another solid move that gives the Cowboys a legit 3rd receiver that was missing last year after they lost Amari Cooper and Cedric Wilson after the 2021 season. Cooks also gives them some vertical threat which should help open up the middle more for CeeDee where he thrives the most and hopefully provides a bit more room for Michael Gallup who should be improved this year being another year removed from ACL surgery (he was only 9-10 months removed last year and didn’t quite have his quickness/cutting ability fully back
4. I won’t spend much time on the draft. Seemed to be a consensus “decent” draft…the main criticism being they reached a little on the first round on Mazi Smith (DT). But the Cowboys have largely drafted excellent the last 10 years or so…which has earned them benefit on claims of “reaching”. That wouldn’t have been true the previous 15 years when they drafted horrifically. But Will McClay and Stephen Jones have done an excellent job of taming Jerrah on draft day nowadays. Schoonmaker (TE 2nd round) and Overshown (LB 3rd round) were mostly considered good picks by the draft pundit class.
5. Patriots fans here will remember old friend Stephan Gilmore. Dallas traded for him from the Colts where most metrics had him as quite solid last year. He’s not the alpha CB he once was when he was arguably the best cover man in the league. But as a #2 or #3 CB, this is a really nice depth move…esp in the same division as the pass-heavy Eagles.
Overall, the team definitely got better on paper, but the coaching shakeup is a bit worrying on the offensive side. Esp coming off a year where they were near the top of the league in scoring despite Dak missing 5 games. Retaining Dan Quinn at DC was a huge plus though. That defense under him is pretty legit and his use of Micah Parsons all over the field has worked wonders.
My guess is this team will be pretty good again but the McCarthy factor always looms. His idea of “running the ball to give the defense some rest” is just bizarrely antiquated. You can run a controlled offense passing it too. That’s what teams like Buffalo, KC and Philly do. I’m not opposed to running it if it’s working, but doing it just because you want to milk more time off the clock sounds like something from 1996 when QBs had way lower completion percentages than they do now.
Probably the biggest obstacle for Dallas is the schedule (NFC East in general has gotten quite tough compared to recent years). They will have one of the hardest schedules in the NFL, though no sympathy expected from Patriots fans who are one of 3 teams with a harder schedule than Dallas.
There’s been some significant shuffling since their close divisional round playoff loss at San Francisco this past January. The 2022 season was what most might call a “mixed success”. They went 12-5 despite missing Dak for 5 games.They won a road playoff game for the first time since the 1992 NFCCG. However, they still failed to advance beyond the divisional round.
1. Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has been replaced by Brian Schottenheimer. In Jerryland, this has probably been the most controversial of all offseason moves. Moore was seen as a young and upcoming offensive mind and his offenses produced. His biggest internal criticism (much of it from McCarthy himself who inherited Moore) was he liked the no-huddle too much and it tired the defense out due to not giving them enough rest while the offense blitzed down the field quickly. But this claim was not backed by empirical evidence since the defense last year under Dan Quinn actually performed superior beyond 60 snaps than they did prior and were near the top of the league in that metric. Schottenheimer, in theory, will slow things down and run it a bit more though it is interesting that McCarthy will call the plays. I don’t like these moves much, though I suspect some of the change is being overplayed. If you are good at passing, that will tend to eventually come out in the playcalling. We shall see once the season starts.
2. Zeke out and Tony Pollard on the franchise tag. This one was no surprise as Zeke was way too expensive to keep for 2023 and Pollard had already surpassed him as the biggest play-maker out of the backfield even before last season. Cowboys also brought in Ronald Jones which is a move I really like. He’s still young (25 years old) and doesn’t have a ton of miles on him but has been very effective when he plays.
3. Signed Brandon Cooks. This is another solid move that gives the Cowboys a legit 3rd receiver that was missing last year after they lost Amari Cooper and Cedric Wilson after the 2021 season. Cooks also gives them some vertical threat which should help open up the middle more for CeeDee where he thrives the most and hopefully provides a bit more room for Michael Gallup who should be improved this year being another year removed from ACL surgery (he was only 9-10 months removed last year and didn’t quite have his quickness/cutting ability fully back
4. I won’t spend much time on the draft. Seemed to be a consensus “decent” draft…the main criticism being they reached a little on the first round on Mazi Smith (DT). But the Cowboys have largely drafted excellent the last 10 years or so…which has earned them benefit on claims of “reaching”. That wouldn’t have been true the previous 15 years when they drafted horrifically. But Will McClay and Stephen Jones have done an excellent job of taming Jerrah on draft day nowadays. Schoonmaker (TE 2nd round) and Overshown (LB 3rd round) were mostly considered good picks by the draft pundit class.
5. Patriots fans here will remember old friend Stephan Gilmore. Dallas traded for him from the Colts where most metrics had him as quite solid last year. He’s not the alpha CB he once was when he was arguably the best cover man in the league. But as a #2 or #3 CB, this is a really nice depth move…esp in the same division as the pass-heavy Eagles.
Overall, the team definitely got better on paper, but the coaching shakeup is a bit worrying on the offensive side. Esp coming off a year where they were near the top of the league in scoring despite Dak missing 5 games. Retaining Dan Quinn at DC was a huge plus though. That defense under him is pretty legit and his use of Micah Parsons all over the field has worked wonders.
My guess is this team will be pretty good again but the McCarthy factor always looms. His idea of “running the ball to give the defense some rest” is just bizarrely antiquated. You can run a controlled offense passing it too. That’s what teams like Buffalo, KC and Philly do. I’m not opposed to running it if it’s working, but doing it just because you want to milk more time off the clock sounds like something from 1996 when QBs had way lower completion percentages than they do now.
Probably the biggest obstacle for Dallas is the schedule (NFC East in general has gotten quite tough compared to recent years). They will have one of the hardest schedules in the NFL, though no sympathy expected from Patriots fans who are one of 3 teams with a harder schedule than Dallas.