Cowboys news: New head coach in Dallas will have a lot to overcome

10 things the new Dallas Cowboys coach must learn to navigate to be successful – Calvin Watkins, Dallas Morning News

Although it’s an intriguing job, there’s a lot that comes with it.

Jerry Jones is the only NFL owner who doubles as his team’s lead personnel man. Jones will attend some college pro days, the Senior Bowl, East-West Shrine Game and NFL scouting combine.

Jones doesn’t have a stopwatch checking 40 times. He’s got scouts who provide the 40 times, measurements and videos of prospective college players.

Jones also is invested in free agency with a deep knowledge of the salary cap projections for his team.

Former coach Mike McCarthy said it wasn’t a problem dealing with Jones because there was no middleman if he wanted to do something such as increase the coaching staff or acquire a player.

Sometimes Jones is the tiebreaker when it comes to selecting players in the draft.

It’s also good to have Stephen Jones, the team’s CEO and co-owner, in the draft room. It was Stephen who convinced his dad not to select former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel.

However, Jerry Jones didn’t listen to some scouts and bypassed Hall of Fame receiver Randy Moss. Jones also calmed former coach Bill Parcells’ fears of losing out on defensive tackle Marcus Spears in the draft.

Jason Garrett shared some advice for Deion Sanders on the Dan Patrick Show about the head coaching job in Dallas.

If he wants to do it, he should take it. … He and Jerry have a long relationship. … You gotta be able to be honest and direct with each other. … My encouragement to him would be, tell Jerry what you think.

Garrett also shares some other insights on how to navigate the situation in Dallas as a head coach in this highly listenable interview.

Cowboys’ next head coach odds: Deion Sanders was early favorite, Kellen Moore jumps ahead – Hannah VanBiber, The Athletic

In yesterdays News post we saw that Deion Sanders had the best odds to be the next Cowboys Head Coach, but that changed overnight.

On Friday, Moore interviewed virtually with the Cowboys and jumped into pole position as the favorite on DraftKings (-125) for the head coach opening.

Sanders, now +175, was the betting favorite earlier this week at +100 odds with Moore behind him at +250. Public interest around the celebrity coach’s next move spiked after reports that Cowboys’ owner and general manager Jerry Jones had discussed the role with him. That said, “Coach Prime” has remained coy about his interest in the job, and Jones has spoken less formally with Sanders.

“Kellen Moore and Deion Sanders are at the top of our list, driven by the current buzz and their strong ties to the Cowboys organization — an attribute we know Jerry Jones values highly,” Johnny Avello, director of sports operations at DraftKings, told The Athletic. “Our comprehensive list is crafted with a strong understanding of the candidate pool, in-depth research and real-time news updates.”

Other names to watch? Dallas’ current offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer. He popped toward the top of the betting board on Friday afternoon, with his odds shifting drastically from +7000 to +500.

What’s Next? Cowboys In Flux at WR behind CeeDee Lamb – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com

The Cowboys need to prioritize the wide receiver position in the NFL draft.

Future: Nothing about the 2024 season went as Brandin Cooks expected it would. The veteran wideout lost several weeks to a knee infection stemming from injections to manage pain, and though he’d flash peak ability a time or two after he returned, it didn’t meet the expectation that existed ahead of the season — in that he’d be dominant alongside Lamb.

Others stepped up to try and fill the void, but it was an uneven mix.

Jalen Tolbert took more strides forward, so that’s promising and it makes for a battle to come with Jalen Brooks and definitely Jonathan Mingo; and Mingo’s acquisition ahead of the trade deadline, at the expense of a fourth-round pick, no less, virtually guarantees he’ll be on the roster for likely the next couple of seasons (and if you don’t believe me, see Trey Lance).

It’s difficult to envision the Cowboys wanting to get Mingo and Tolbert more involved and seeking to pay Cooks. It’s not impossible, but simply doesn’t track, in my mind.

It’s a youth movement at the position in Dallas, to say the least.

Mixing in KaVontae Turpin, the two-time Pro Bowler and All-Pro returner who did serious damage offensively when given the chance in 2024, and up-and-coming former draft pick Ryan Flournoy adds more kerosene to the fire for training camp and, in last year’s camp and preseason, it was Kelvin Harmon making some waves along with Jalen Cropper before both spent their season on the practice squad with Seth Williams.

That’s a long list of potentials, and that’s before we make it to free agency and the NFL draft, where more will be considered for the 90-man roster.

Buckle up.

Outside of no HC, the Dallas Cowboys have another serious issue – Shane Taylor, Inside The Star

Dallas will have to do some roster gymnastics this offseason.

Top Heavy

This roster is so top-heavy it is not even funny, with the money they paying Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and soon to be Micah Parsons, it leaves them in a huge disadvantage.

We can say whatever we want, and yes they paid a B-level quarterback A+ money, but the problem is, you have to have a guy who is at least good to be able to have a chance in football games.

The real issue is Jerry Jones and the way he conducts his team and just won’t get out of the way.

Dallas has 22 unrestricted free agents on the roster and a handful of others who are also considered free agents as well.

This team is going to get worse, and we all know it.

Now, you can’t win 12 games in a row for three straight seasons and be satisfied with a 7-10 record. Even more so because Jerry said last offseason he was going to be “all in,” after being the only 2-seed to lose to a 7-seed at home when they changed the playoff format.

He proceeded to wait until the last possible moment to get two contracts done and sign nobody else to make the team better in the last window of chance that he had.

The OC paramount in this coach search – Mickey Spagnola, DallasCowboys.com

Spagnola’s meandering missive comes in at 1,615 words, but is well summarized in the seven-word headline.

Whoever is hired, they had better have offensive coaching experience, no matter what level, NFL or college, or hey, high school. And if not you, that person better have a really impressive answer to the No. 1 pressing question if they want the job:

Who is coordinating your offense?

Because here is the deal: offense matters. The Cowboys have prioritized their salary cap dollars on offense […]

So if I’m conducting the interviews […], my first question would be about the potential staff they could put together, most specifically, who do you want to hire as the offensive coordinator? […]

This in no way is suggesting that the Zoom interview Friday with Moore – the current Eagles offensive coordinator and former Cowboys backup quarterback, QB coach and offensive coordinator for four seasons – makes him a lock to be hired. But he would solve half the head coach equation, especially since Dak has been a proponent of the job Kellen did here those four years as the OC.

My understanding is there will be others under head coach consideration, too. Maybe they widen the search to the college ranks, maybe looking at an offensive coordinator with head coach experience on his résumé that hasn’t been mentioned yet.

Former Dallas Cowboys’ head coach praises Deion Sanders amid HC buzz – Koby Skillern, Sports Illustrated

Primetime gets some kudos from a familiar face.

The Dallas Cowboys have been searching for their next head coach, and despite entering the market later than expected, they have surprisingly launched a thorough process.

One of the notable candidates is Cowboys’ Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.

Former Dallas Cowboys’ head coach Dave Campo recently shared his thoughts on Deion Sanders potentially coaching the Cowboys.

Speaking on 105.3 The Fan, Campo called Coach Prime “a leader” and the “smartest player” he ever coached during his time in Dallas. Campo’s comments come amid growing speculation that Sanders, currently the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, could make the jump to the NFL.

When asked if Sanders could transition from college to the NFL, Campo expressed confidence in Deion’s ability to succeed at the next level.

Deion was a leader and was the smartest player I have ever coached,” Campo said, emphasizing Sanders’ football IQ and natural leadership qualities.

How agents impact coaching searches, and why the NFL cares – Kahlyn Kahler, ESPN

This is not specifically about the Cowboys, but well worth a read if you’re interested how the wheels turn at the NFL Level, where in 2024, per ESPN’s data, three agencies represented 20 head coaches and 20 general managers.

Since 2018, agent and ex-Chicago defensive end Trace Armstrong and his agency, Athletes First, have represented two fired Bears head coaches, Matt Nagy and Eberflus; three fired offensive coordinators, Mark Helfrich, Luke Getsy and Shane Waldron; as well as current general manager Ryan Poles.

“I’ve never seen one agent have so much influence on one team and had so little success, but they keep going back and taking his guys,” said one coaching agent, who requested anonymity to speak freely on the topic. “And we all kind of shake our heads like, have they not figured this out yet?”

The influence of agents on team hiring has become a talking point not just among fans or within the agent community but at the NFL level. The appearance of “package deals,” whereby an agent places multiple clients in coaching or front office roles with the same team, has made its way to Goodell’s office and into cautionary literature distributed by the league office to its clubs.

Per the league office’s data (based on 110 known agents of a pool of 153 supervisory roles), at least 14 clubs had multiple supervisors [head coach, general manager, coordinators] repped by the same agency in 2020, and at least 12 in 2023. And the biggest practitioner going into the 2023 season was [Bob] Lamonte, who represented the head coach and at least one other person in a supervisory role at four different clubs (Bengals, Jaguars, Chiefs and Giants). Lamonte did not return calls for this story.

One former NFL general manager said that when he interviewed coaches for jobs, he’d ask them to explain why they wanted to hire each coach on their dream staff list. Sometimes, the coach’s answer to the question was simply a shared agent.

“It was a little bit of a red flag,” the former general manager said. “Is his agent putting his staff together, or is he putting his staff together?