Dallas Cowboys: Is Kellen Moore destined to be the next Sean Payton?

The Dallas Cowboys had the number one rated offense last year which means this first-year play-caller could be on his way out to the top.

The Dallas Cowboys have had some unbelievable luck when it comes to head coaches. They have been even better when it comes to assistant coaches throughout their tenure but this notion suddenly stopped when ex-head coach Jason Garrett took command. Other than Kris Richard and Matt Eberflus, the demand for assistants has been minimal.

From Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson all the way to Bill Parcells, assistant coaches have been pilfered from the Dallas Cowboys ranks to become head men somewhere else. Tom Landry lost Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fame tight end and assistant coach, Mike Ditka, to the Chicago Bears where he would lead them to their lone Super Bowl Championship.

Jimmy Johnson lost Dave Wannstedt and Norv Turner among others from his coaching tree to head coaching gigs. The biggest loss, in my opinion, came from the Bill Parcells staff when the Dallas Cowboys lost Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer to the Minnesota Vikings but more notably offensive coordinator Sean Payton to the New Orleans Saints.

I am reluctant to include current Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore to the Garrett coaching tree as most people who talk about Moore always point out how cerebral a player he was at a very young age. It was only a matter of time before he added coaching to his resume.

Keeping Kellen Moore who had the number one rated offense in the entire NFL is an underrated move for this new coaching staff. That is remarkable considering Moore is only in his second year of coaching. I can only imagine what this 31-year-old has in store for the offense this year with different guidance from above.

People who say that Kellen Moore is too young to be a head coach obviously have not been paying attention to the recent trend of coaching hires.

This is the predicament the Dallas Cowboys currently find themselves in. It seems that NFL owners now want to try and find young experienced guys the franchise can grow with. The current model is the Los Angeles Rams with their 34-year-old head coach Sean McVay. McVay was 32 years old when he was hired and already has a Super Bowl appearance to his name.

Other teams have followed similar structures with the Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins and the Green Bay Packers all hiring head coaches under 40 years of age. Don’t forget that Super Bowl-winning head coaches Jon Gruden, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin were all hired before the age of 35.

The interesting part about all of that is the only defensive-minded coach that was recently hired is Brian Flores from Miami. The rest of the teams went after young minds with a background in offense. This is where the Dallas Cowboys should worry.

With the exception of New England and Seattle, teams that have brought in middle-aged men with all the experience in the world feels like a team that is taking too long to adapt to its surroundings. The Denver Broncos with Vic Fangio and Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Bruce Arians feels like temporary solutions with aspirations of winning now at all costs with zero regard to the future. Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is 56 years old for those who were wondering.

This is where I feel Kellen Moore will be a hot commodity come 2021. Sean Payton left Dallas with the front office barely blinking their eyes. I’m sure they even opened the door for him on the way out. That is a mistake this front office has apparently never gotten over with the on-again-off-again offseason rumors of owner Jerry Jones trying to lure Payton back in Dallas.

I am not saying that Moore should have been given the Dallas Cowboys head coaching job. I am sure that head coach Mike McCarthy is going to do a wonderful job. But the NFL is funny in certain ways. It is a mystery to me that an NFL head coach has never led and won a Super Bowl with two different teams.

I am not saying that it can’t happen but history is against the Dallas Cowboys in this regard. I am just implying that Kellen Moore will more than likely be gone at the end of the season no matter what his offense produces this year. If he has another great year, he will be rewarded and rightfully so.

If it turns out to be a poor outing for this offense, it will be attributed to these unusual sets of circumstances the NFL is faced in today’s world. Once again, I am not saying that Moore should be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, but I feel that Moore having a Payton like impact with another team is something I am not looking forward to happening again.