Three Dallas Cowboys storylines to watch in 2020
By Mitch Larson
2020 is the start of a new era for the Dallas Cowboys. Here are three storylines to be on the lookout for all season long.
It’s a new season for the Dallas Cowboys. For the first time in a decade, America’s Team will enter a new season with a brand new coach. The 2020 campaign truly marks the beginning of a new era for the team now. Cautious optimism is aplenty down in Dallas and speculation is wild about what this team could look like on Sundays.
The Jason Garrett coached Cowboys teams of the last decade were a lot of things, but one word to sum them up could be predictable. Those teams for better or worse came into each and every game with the belief and determination that even if opposing teams knew what was coming, it wouldn’t matter.
Now, the Cowboys will be led by Mike McCarthy, a Super Bowl-winning coach who previously spent 13 seasons at the helm of the Green Bay Packers. McCarthy was out of football last year, and will now take over a roster that is oozing with untapped potential. It’s no secret that he is a much different coach than Garrett, and far more aggressive.
Things are going to look and feel a lot different in Dallas this season. So, with that here are three of the storylines that will be fascinating to watch shakeout all season long.
1. How much did Mike McCarthy learn in his year away from football?
A lot of things likely come to mind when you think of new Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy. Innovative is likely not one of them. For the record, I don’t necessarily mean that as a slight towards McCarthy. When you’ve won a Super Bowl and spent your career having Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers as your starting quarterbacks, you are probably less concerned with chasing the latest offensive trends and more focused on crafting your offense around your future Hall of Fame signal-callers.
However, McCarthy’s tenure in Green Bay didn’t end in the best of circumstances. One of the main storylines that surrounded his exit from Green Bay was around the rift between him and Rodgers, one that notably included the star quarterback’s frustration with a lack of creativity on offense and in their playcalling. McCarthy called the plays for almost his entire tenure in Green Bay but has notably announced that in Dallas he will allow offensive coordinator Kellen Moore to continue to call plays.
Last December, a story about how McCarthy was approaching his year away from football broke and helped give him some buzz in the months leading up to teams searching for a new coach. Throughout the 2019 season, he basically created his own staff who prepared for each week as if they were the 33rd team in the NFL. They watched film, broke down league trends, and built new playbooks together. He even took a trip to Pro Football Focus for a six-hour meeting at the analytics giant’s headquarters.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how McCarthy marries everything he learned last season in his year away from football, with all of the experience he has from his 13 years as a head coach in Green Bay. Things are going to look different, that is for sure. Just how different still remains to be seen.