Dallas Cowboys: 3 key things the coaching staff must prove in 2018
The Dallas Cowboys coaching staff has been under a lot of criticism in the Jason Garrett era. What can they do in 2018 to alleviate those concerns?
The Dallas Cowboys under head coach Jason Garrett have been mostly mediocre, with splashes of dominant regular season play and disappointing playoff finishes. Though the team has never had a completely dominant roster, Garrett has been at the helm of some pretty talented units.
Going into 2018, the front office has managed to assemble a team filled with youth, athleticism, and talent. Even without former big names in skill positions, Dallas has been able to fill those spots with players capable of filling certain roles as well as being solid all-around players. With promise on offense and defense, the coaching staff must rise to the occasion in order to keep their jobs in 2019 and on.
Here are three key things the coaching staff must prove in order to build the team into a perennial Super Bowl contender:
#1. Prove they can bring more explosion and diversity to the offense
In 2017, teams committed resources to stacking up running back Ezekiel Elliott when he was available, and forced the passing offense to move the ball. For a plethora of reasons, the team struggled to move the ball vertically and went games without plays of 30 yards or more. The coaching staff must change this.
The coaching staff may be well on their way to achieving this for a few reasons.
Most fans gripe that the coaching staff should have had a less predictable and conservative game plan. While there is validity in the desire, the majority of the blame is not on the coaches. A teams’ offensive personnel dictates its scheme. With former wide receiver Dez Bryant‘s erosion and Jason Witten‘s age, the two weapons were shells of what they were in the primes of their careers. Though both could contribute as niche players, neither could carry the offensive play-making weight like they used to.
The coaching staff was handcuffed by the personnel in certain ways. With a wide receiver corps built to be funneled through Dez Bryant’s dynamic play-making and attention on the field, his lack of either in 2017 hurt the group collectively. Cole Beasley received the attention and the passing game was suffocated.
Though Jason Witten was still an above average blocker and a leader, his receiving ability greatly diminished from his heyday. And as seen in Amazon’s All or Nothing series, he refused to leave the field as his legacy as a team great and iron man were established.
In fact, Witten played 98% of the snaps in 2017. Witten’s athletic decline forced the team to limit their diversity and rely on a few elements of the offense to push the team forward. Personnel repetitiveness and predictability became a norm.
With new blood in those positions with youth and athleticism, it is up to the coaches to show that they indeed were not the sole reason for the struggles.