Why Kellen Moore is the right head coach for the Cowboys

There is definitely a camp of people who want to see Kellen Moore return to the Cowboys.

The Dallas Cowboys are searching for a new head coach and one name that has gained a lot of traction is their old friend Kellen Moore. Not everyone welcomes bringing Moore back as some distinctly remember the bad stuff. From being bludgeoned by all the curl route rhetoric to seeing Ezekiel Elliott playing center on the final play he ever called, it doesn’t bring back great memories.

While those are things that people bring up, there’s a lot more to this. Regardless of what some fans think of him, many people hold him in high regard. And one of those people is Jerry Jones. Should the Cowboys run this thing back and give Moore the keys to this football team? Here are some things you should consider before hashtagging NoKellenMoore.

Moore’s time in Dallas was interesting. Despite an underwhelming audition at quarterback late in the 2015 season, the team wanted to keep him around. A training camp injury ended his season in 2016, and he hung out on the practice squad in 2017. Even though his on-field performance wasn’t up to snuff, the Cowboys didn’t want to get rid of him. All the talk around the organization was about how smart this guy was, so it surprised no one when they made him the quarterback coach in 2018.

After just one year of NFL coaching, Moore was promoted to offensive coordinator, where he immediately transformed the Cowboys’ offense. Dak Prescott went from a “game manager” to airing it out. Suddenly, this 227-yards-per-game quarterback was averaging over 300 yards per game. We saw things from Prescott that we hadn’t seen before. In the first year with Moore as their offensive coordinator, the Cowboys had the most total yards and the best passing efficiency in the NFL.

Before Moore’s arrival, the Cowboys’ offense had not led the league in total yards on offense since the ‘70s. Now, they have done so in two of Moore’s first three seasons as the team’s offensive coordinator. In 2021, the Cowboys scored 530 points, the most in franchise history.

2022 was a weird season. Prescott missed five games, but the Cowboys still finished fourth in the league in points scored. What is even more impressive about that is they did it with Noah Brown as the team’s WR2. In the end, Prescott threw too many interceptions and Mike McCarthy wanted a more controlled offense that complemented their defense. And just like that, the Kellen Moore era had ended in Dallas.

Moore took over as the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers where everything was bad that season. They dealt with several injuries as he lost his WR2 Mike Williams early in the year and all their offensive stars (Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen, and Austin Ekeler) missed time. On top of that, the Chargers’ defense was terrible so it was an uphill battle for the young play-caller.

The Chargers reset their coaching staff, so Moore moved on to Philadelphia. While the Eagles are having success, it’s hard to determine how much of a role he plays in that. They have the best rushing attack in the NFL, but Saquon Barkley is a big part of that. He’s finally had some good luck in the health department and shown what he’s capable of doing. They also have Jeff Stoutland, one of the best offensive line coaches in the league. That’s not to say Moore is just a bystander, but it’s unclear how much of their success is attributed to him.

What isn’t an unknown is what he means for Dak. These guys were once backup quarterbacks to Tony Romo and have partnered together for most of the post-Romo era in Dallas. Prescott loves him and it’s easy to see why. With Moore by his side, Prescott is one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

When trying to solve problems, one way to determine how much of a factor a variable is to the final result is to conduct a design of experiments. Between all the different blocks of data of head coaches, offensive coordinators, and quarterbacks, we now have enough data to show the Cowboys were better at scoring points with Moore calling the plays. Are there other factors that come into play? Absolutely, but this analysis at least helps position us in the right direction, and that direction is – the Cowboys were better with Moore calling the plays.

Think about how Moore used pre-snap motion, not just more frequently, but how well it helped Prescott figure things out quickly and isolate the matchups he wanted. He took more downfield shots, used swing screens to get his receivers a running start, and utilized players in ways that some defenses weren’t ready for. He was employing CeeDee Lamb in the backfield before it was cool and used double hand-offs with Zeke pitching it to Tony Pollard in those must-have fourth-down conversions. Moore’s offense just provided more opportunities.

While he might be a better play-caller than some would acknowledge, we don’t know what type of head coach Moore would make. Some are apprehensive because they view him with no leadership ability. He is “soft” because he’s soft-spoken. Can he even get guys to listen to him? People forget he’s commanded the huddle every time he stepped on the football field. He’s no stranger to getting players to follow his lead. The real measure of that will come in the decisions he makes. If he’s helping his players succeed, the respect will follow.

Anyone the Cowboys hire will be a gamble. There are no sure-fire winners. Moore offers greater complexity to the offense, which can be good if the team can execute it, but troublesome if they can’t. McCarthy’s schemes were simpler for Dallas which worked at times, but he ran into problems against better-coached teams. Moore will face those same challenges, except there is the upside that more autonomy will bring more creativity to the Cowboys offense and give them a greater coaching advantage.

A Moore-coached team will attack based on their strengths. He’s shown he can be deadly on the ground or through the air depending on his biggest offensive weapons. He’ll also re-center Dak’s responsibilities. With Moore, it’s all about the details. He’ll trust the offensive linemen to make their checks at the line of scrimmage rather than Prescott handling that as he did at times under McCarthy. This will allow Dak to focus on what he needs to do at quarterback. He’ll bring more explosive plays to the offense and should re-establish his red zone success, an area McCarthy struggled with immensely after Moore left.

While the changes on offense are a big part of the draw of Moore, it’s how he communicates with the Joneses that could be his biggest attribute. Some refer to him as Jason Garrett 2.0 because of all the similarities, but we have no idea how similar their coaching styles will be. What will be matched though is their ability to influence Jerry and Stephen Jones. Moore is a very bright person and articulates himself extremely well. Being able to convince the Joneses to do things differently is a big plus.

The Joneses respect Moore a great deal. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have pushed him on McCarthy when he became the head coach and this discussion wouldn’t even be happening right now. When he speaks, they are reeled in, and developing and implementing the right vision for the team is paramount. People want a strong-willed head coach who won’t be hindered by Jones’ meddling. That’s a pipe dream. Jerry Jones is never going away. The next best thing is a super-intelligent coach who can Jedi-mind trick them into doing things his way. If he can do enough of that, the Cowboys have a fighting chance.