Dallas Cowboys have offensive talent to win, but not with Kellen Moore

The Dallas Cowboys have been through an early free agency roller coaster as they’ve seen receiver Cedrick Wilson and guard Connor Williams go in free agency and traded away Pro Bowl receiver Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns for a fifth-round pick. Yet, with all of those moves, I believe Dallas still has the talent on offense to take the team deep into the playoffs.

The glaring problem is that the Cowboys need to get more out of their offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Once seen as the golden boy by some around the league after his first two seasons with Dallas, Moore seems to have lost his luster and is currently the biggest thing holding this team back.

Last season Dallas had one of the more efficient offenses in the first part of the year. However, after teams started switching up their defenses to stop Moore’s game plans, Moore failed to adapt. This lack of depth led to the overall demise of America’s Team season. Many want to blame quarterback Dak Prescott for the team’s demise, but what people are forgetting is that Moore is the guy calling the plays and Prescott is doing his best to execute what Moore calls.

This is proven by how effective Prescott was against the blitz. Teams early on wanted to test Dak and his surgically repaired ankle, and Moore typically called safe plays to take what the defense was giving his quarterback. If the defense was working hard to stop the run and pass, Moore would call wide-open five-yard passes to gain small chunks of yardage.

Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s playcalling and game plans are hurting the talented Cowboys offense

While the initial plan was a solid philosophy, it’s not going to do anything for the offense long term in the NFL. Teams were smart enough to adjust and stopped blitzing in order to stop Dallas’s passing game. Moore, at that point, should have adjusted his game plan and used his two good running backs in Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard.

That wasn’t the case. Instead, the OC seemed to double down on passing the ball to CeeDee Lamb, Michael Gallup, Cooper, and Dalton Schultz. This played exactly into what Dallas’s opponents were expecting and wanted.

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy should have taken over the play-calling late last season when Moore’s offense went from one of the best in the league to an offense that was one-dimensional and predictable.

McCarthy would have been able to handle the opposing team’s adjustments. Now, it seems like the team wants the head coach to be more hands-on without stepping on Moore’s toes. This team also went as far as to say that the reason Cooper’s trade happened was due to his lack of a scheme fit despite the fact that Cooper asked for more targets during the year. These comments protected Moore which is a mistake for the Cowboys going into the 2022 NFL season.

America’s Team isn’t going to go anywhere unless Moore does his job better.